‘All 60 have ability to win medals’

Since the first Olympic appearance in 1984, Bangladesh, one of most populous countries in the world, never won an Olympic medal in nine appearances of the world's most showcased event. Up until the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Olympics has always been a matter of token participation for Bangladesh. However this time, Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) sees its participation in Tokyo Olympics as the journey with a new dream, the foundation of which has been laid by the international performances of shooter Abdullah Hel Baki and archers Ruman Sana and Diya Siddique. On the eve of their departure for Japan yesterday evening, Baki talked to The Daily Star about his preparation, performance and target for the Tokyo Olympics.

Baki, who started his shooting career in 2001 through air rifle before grabbing the match rifle in 2008, have never won an individual 10m Air Rifle event's gold medal in any international tournaments, although he won silver medal thrice – two in the Commonwealth Games and one in the South Asian Games and became ninth in the World Cup once. Even though the lad from Gazipur could not ideally prepare for Tokyo Olympics following the coronavirus pandemic, the 31-year-old shooter will still be in focus in Tokyo as far as the potential first breakthrough for his nation is concerned.

"Olympics is the biggest stage compared to any competition because all 60 shooters, of whom the first 30 shooters qualified directly and the rest 30 have come depending on the results of different tournaments, are special and have the ability to win medals, I believe," said Baki yesterday.

Baki has not promised anything regarding breaking the disappointment of Bangladesh in Olympics but he is more focused on transforming his performance of the practice sessions into the main competition in Tokyo.

"As a sportsman, everyone has a target to play the Olympics. Last two years, there was almost no practice and competitions including some Olympics qualifying events due to the pandemic. However, I tried my best under local coach Golam Safiuddin Shiplu."

"Generally, I am scoring 626 to 627 and sometimes it goes beyond 630. If I can replicate these scores in Tokyo, I hope I can qualify for the eight-man final round," Baki expressed his optimism.

"And the final is anyone's game. I qualified for the final in the Bangladesh Games as a number one but I finished eighth. Whereas I finished second in the Commonwealth Games while moving to the final as the fifth shooter. So, the final is different."

The former BKSP shooter's nervousness also played a key role in downing his performances as he often broke down mentally in the international tournaments by scoring much lower than what he had scored in practice sessions.

Baki, however, claimed he improved on this issue a bit after getting a job in Bangladesh Navy which has been providing him with all expenditures to take part in all international tournaments except for Olympics, Asian and South Asian Games.

"The game pressure is a really different thing. It doesn't matter whether I have a permanent job or enough financial support. I think I have developed myself mentally in this aspect. And now I am in more control of myself unlike before," said Baki, who also believes he can achieve anything on the given day.