Hakim outdraws Ruman

Bangladesh's top archer Ruman Sana improved on his Tokyo Olympic Games performance but could not overcome up-and-coming archer Hakim Ahmed Rubel in the qualification round of the recurve individual event in the 22nd Asian Archery Championships, which began yesterday at the Army Stadium in Banani.

Ruman, who scored 662 in the qualification round of the Tokyo Olympics, scored 665 to finish ninth among 39 archers while Rubel scored 666.

Ruman will face Nguyen Hoang of Vietnam in the round of 16 today while Rubel will compete against Kirjalol Karorov of Uzbekistan. Ram Krishna Saha finished 10th with a score of 665 and will square off against Sri Lanka's Ahangama Vidanalage.

Meanwhile, the South Korean quartet of Seungyun Lee, Pil-Joong Kim, Woo Tack Han and Woo Seok Lee claimed the first four positions of the event by scoring 680, 680, 679, and 677 respectively while Indian archers Kapil, Paravin Ramesh Jadhav and Parth Sushant Salunkhe finished fifth, sixth and seventh with scores of 675, 670 and 670 respectively.

In the women's recurve individual event, Bangladesh Olympian Diya Siddique bettered her Olympic performance by two points to score 637 to finish 12th among 26 archers. Nasrin Akter and Beauty Roy finished 15th and 17th by scoring 629 and 621 respectively.

South Korea's Su Jung Ryoo created an Asian Championships' record in the qualification round as she finished with a score of 687, eclipsing the previous record by three points.

Ryoo's compatriots Yejin Oh, Haejin Lim and Dasomi Jung grabbed the second, third and fourth positions by making 681, 677 and 675 respectively.

Indian archers Ankita Bhakat, Madhu Vedwan and Ridhi finished behind the South Koreas to finish fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.