Athletics boss in town

The 41st National Athletics Championships are all set to get underway at the Bangabandhu National Stadium tomorrow in presence of Asian Athletics Association (AAA) president Dahlan Al-Hamad, who arrived in the capital yesterday on a three-day visit.

Some 500 athletes from 64 districts, eight divisions, universities, educational boards, services teams and BKSP are expected to compete in 36 events -- 22 for men and 14 for women – in the three-day event.

“For the first time, a high official of the Asian Athletics Association is visiting Bangladesh and we hope he [Dahlan] will get an idea about Bangladesh athletics during his three-day trip,” Bangladesh Athletics Federation's general secretary Abdur Rakib Montu said at a press conference at the BNS conference room yesterday. 

Dahlan is not only the AAA president but also a vice-president of International Association of Athletics Federations. He was scheduled to meet state minister for youth and sports Biren Shikdar last night while he is expected to pay homage at the Dhanmondi residence of Bangabadhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman today before meeting Bangladesh Olympic Association president and Army Chief General Abu Belal Muhammad Shafiul Huq and deputy sports minister Arif Khan Joy.

Dahlan will declare the national athletics championships open on Friday and leave for Qatar on Saturday morning.   

With Bangladesh struggling to take the standard of athletes to an international level, BAF president ASM Ali Kabir said that they would seek help from the AAA president in this regard.

“Bangladesh is far behind the international standard because we don't have any investment and new technology. So we will request him to invest here by setting up a regional (South Asia) development centre under the supervision of AAA so we can produce quality coaches and judges,” Kabir said over phone.

Asked whether they would use electronic timer which was last used during 2010 SA Games, federation's member Kitab Ali said: “We have been working on fixing the electronic timer over the past three days. We don't want to be embarrassed in front of the Asian athletics chief. We are hopeful that will be able to hold the events with the timer.”