Ruman and Diya make Olympic waves

Bangladesh's top archers Ruman Sana and Diya Siddique got off to smooth starts in their individual recurve events on the opening day of the Tokyo Olympics after finishing 17th and 36th respectively among 64 competitors at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Japan yesterday.

Ruman, who secured a direct ticket to the Olympics, scored 662 out of 720 in the men's individual recurve event while Diya, who gained a wildcard entry, scored 635 out of 720 in the women's individual recurve event.

The duo also made it to the finals of the mixed recurve team event, qualifying as the 16th final team with a cumulative score of 1297 ahead of powerful nations like Canada, Ukraine, Malaysia, Brazil, Spain and Australia.

"I am really happy to have had a good start because the scores that I put up here today were beyond my expectations. I have not been having good performances in the recent past," Ruman told The Daily Star over the phone from Japan.

The 26-year old, who represent Bangladesh Ansar in domestic events, had a brilliant start and found himself in eighth place after the first 36 shots with a score of 337. Unfortunately, he failed to carry the momentum into the next and final 36 shots, when he tallied 325 points.

"There was a bit of wind in the second phase, so I faced some problems. However, I am happy with my overall performance despite the fact that I could have finished in the top ten had I replicated my performance in the first phase," added Ruman, whose best score in the qualification round was 685 during the 2019 South Asian Games.

Ruman, ranked 25th in the world, will face Tom Hall of Great Britain, who is 87th in the world rankings, on July 27 in the first elimination round.

"Now I have to play and win the elimination rounds. I will definitely be playing to win the match and I am hopeful of winning the match," said Ruman.

Earlier in the day, 17-year-old Diya made a career-best 635 out of 720. She scored 307 over the first 36 shots before bettering the mark with 328 in the second half of the women's individual recurve event. South Korea's An San broke a 28-year-old Olympic record by scoring 680 to finish on top.

Diya will now take on 29th-seeded Dziominskaya Karyna of Belarus in the first elimination round on July 27. Karyna is ranked number 31 in the world, 124 places ahead of Diya in 155.

Ruman was also excited to have reached the target in the mixed team event after finishing 16th among 29 teams.

"It is a big achievement to book a ticket to the 16-team mixed event finals because Bangladesh often finished in the 20s in big tournaments. It is the first time we finished among the top 16 on a stage as big as the Olympics. To be honest, we didn't harbor many hopes of making it to the final of the mixed team event, but we did it. Diya recorded a career-best. We still can't believe we made it," Ruman said, adding that many in archery fraternity were surprised by their results.

However, Ruman and Diya face an uphill task. They are slated to play against South Korea, featuring the top two archers from the men and women's sections of the tournament. The South Koreans tallied 1368 in the first round, 71 points better than the Bangladeshi duo.

"You know that a South Korean archer broke an Olympic record in archery today, so you can understand how strong they are but we are not thinking about our opponents. We want to keep cool and put up our natural performance. If we can perform then we will be happy," said Ruman.