The Bangladeshi contingent at the ongoing South Asian Games have secured a record18 gold medals in an edition of the regional games held outside the country.
The archers created history securing all 10 gold medals in the archery discipline on Monday at Pokhara Stadium in Nepal, pushing the country’s tally to 18.
Bangladesh’s best performance at the SA Games remains 18 gold medals in 2010, when it was held in Dhaka. The number of most number of gold medals won in a single edition of the competition held outside Bangladesh was 7, in the Madras Games in 1995.
Archers Suma Bishwash, Md Sohel Rana, Mohammad Ruman Shana and Eti Khatun won all 4 gold medals in all individual archery events on the ninth day of the regional meet.
Bangladeshi compound archer Suma clinched the day’s first gold beating Anuradha Karunarante of Sri Lanka by 142-134 scores in the women’s compound singles final.
Another compound archer Sohel bagged the day’s second and 16th gold for Bangladesh in men’s compound singles beating Tandin Dorji of Bhutan by 137-136 scores in the final.
Shana, who became the first Bangladeshi archer to qualify for the Olympic Games, clinched the third gold beating Kinley Tshering of Bhutan by 7-1 set points in men’s recurve singles.
Eti Khatun clinched the last archery goldbeating Sonam Dema of Bhutan by 7-3 set points in the final of the women’s recurve singles.
Besides, Ashim Kumar Das bagged bronze medal beating Kumara of Sri Lanka by 145-135 scores in the bronze deciding match.
Earlier, Bangladeshi archers brought glory for the country winning all six team gold medals –men’s recurve, women’s recurve, mixed recurve, compound men’s, compound women’s and compound mixed – at the same venue on Sunday.
Apart from the day’s six gold medals in archery, Bangladesh women’s cricket team also clinched their first-ever gold in the history of the competition beating Sri Lanka.
Bangladeshi athletes earned three more gold medals – two in weightlifting and one in fencing – on the 7th day of the 10-day seven-nation 13th Asian Games in Nepal.
Famed lifters Mabia Akhter Simanta and Jiarul Islam bagged two gold medals in weightlifting events of the games in Pokhara while Fatema Mujib clinched the first-ever gold medal for Bangladesh in women’s fencing at Kirtipur Covered Hall in Kathmandu.
Bangladesh’s athletes also clinched three gold medals in kumite events of karate on Tuesday apart from Dipu Chakma’s gold in taekwondo on Monday.UNB
