Shuvon's silver lining

Shuvon Chowdhury outshone his much-vaunted teammate Abdullah Hel Baki to win silver medal in individual 10m Air Rifle event at the Kahilipara Shooting Range, Guwahati yesterday.

Shuvon, who was ahead of eventual gold-medal winner Chain Singh till the 16th shot in the final round, could not keep the momentum in the last four shots, but did enough to defend the silver medal that Asif Hossain Khan bagged in the Dhaka SA Games in 2010. Bangladesh however failed to retain the gold medal in the team event of men's 10m Air Rifle after the women shooters failed to defend gold medals in both 10m Air Rifle individual and team events.

Bangladesh had to be content with the silver medal (1845.8 points) in the men's team event -- which was contested by Shuvon, Baki and Mahendra Singh for Bangladesh --after finishing behind gold-winner India (1863.4 points).

The Bangladesh Shooting Sports Federation (BSSF) had promised to do something better in the men's 10m air rifle event and all the focus was on Commonwealth Games silver medallist Baki, who entered the finals as the third shooter after Olympics bronze medallist Gagang Narang and Asian Games bronze medallist Chain, leaving Shuvon at number five in the eight-shooter final. Baki failed to keep up the momentum despite initially raising hopes and had to be content with a fifth-place finish.

Chain was leading at the half-way stage of the 20-shot competition before Shuvon got on top after the 12th shot and held the lead till the 16th shot, but the 23-year-old shooter from Sirajganj fired three successive shots below 10 to surrender his lead.

Shuvo's final score of 203.6 -- one point less than Chain's 204.6 -- to win his first international silver medal after winning his first medal (bronze) in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

“I could not hold firm against the Olympian shooters and I was beaten due to lack of experience because I lost my concentration at the last moment and shot badly,” said Shuvon, who was happy to win a silver medal from the regional multi-sport extravaganza, which Shuvon believes is not of a lower standard than other international competitions.

“I was confident that I would win a medal. I talked with my mother after arriving at the range and she encouraged me, terming me as the best shooter of Bangladesh. Though I had scored 208.5 during my last practice session, today [Friday], I scored 203.6 and I am happy to win the silver,” said the former BKSP student.

In hockey, Bangladesh retained their bronze medal after handing a 4-1 defeat to Sri Lanka, thanks to one goal apiece from Ashraful Islam, Pushkor Khisha Mimo, Krishna Kumar and Khorshedur Rahman.

Bangladesh men's handball team suffered a 17-40 defeat to hosts India in the group match while Bangladesh men's kabaddi team suffered their second consecutive defeat when they lost 16-23 to Pakistan.