Alif stuns Ruman as young archers come to the fore

Unheralded Abdur Rahman Alif stunned archery star Ruman Sana in the semifinal before clinching the gold medal in the men's recurve individual event of the Shaheed Ahsan Ullah Victory Day Archery tournament yesterday.

None of the SA Games gold medallists, except Iti Khatun, were able to shine in a tournament where just 27 archers participated. The participants had all been part of the national camp at Shaheed Ahsan Ulllah Master Stadium in Tongi ahead of the return of competitive archery after 11 months, including the long lay-off caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The archers had virtually been out of competition since the clean sweep in 10 archery events of the South Asian Games in Nepal last December but they were engaged in training for the now-deferred Tokyo Olympics till March 25 before the government instructed to close all sports activities following the Covid-19 outbreak. The archers then gradually started training from the middle of August and had gotten nearly four months of practice before the competition, which ended yesterday.

Alif, a grade-nine student of BKSP, outclassed his grade-11 teammate Prodipta Chakma by 6-0 set points to win the gold medal in the competition full of national archers. Ruman -- the country's second athlete to gain direct qualification to the summer Olympics -- lost to Tamimul Islam by 0-6 set points in the bronze-medal deciding match.

"I had a problem in shooting, that's why I could not perform well. You know such things can happen as the performance isn't always the same. So, I am not worried about it and not even unhappy with the performance, because I believe I can come back strongly through hard work," Tokyo Olympics qualifier Ruman Sana told The Daily Star yesterday.

"I have been working on fixing my shooting problems and if I can gain confidence in the coming days and get opportunities to play tournaments regularly, I believe I can do well," said the SA Games gold medallist.

"It is also a good sign for us that junior archers are performing well as they made world-class scores. They also played well in the knockout matches with Tamimul and Alif performing well. Alif is the most junior archer, but did really well. It is also a good sign that the country will not depend just on Ruman because junior archers are also making their presence felt. I hope many Ruman Sanas will be produced in the future and these junior players will bring medals from Olympics or World Championships, even if I can't do it," said Ruman.

Only Iti Khatun, another SA Games gold medallist, stayed true to form and won the gold medal by beating Beauty Roy 6-5 in the women's recurve individual event while Mahanaz Akter Monira won bronze beating Diya Siddique 6-4.

In the men's compound individual event, Ashiquzzaman grabbed gold by beating Siam Siddik by 139-138 points and SA Games gold medallist Sohel Rana had to be content with a bronze medal with a 145-139 win over Ashim Kumer Das.

In the women's recurve individual event, Shyamoli Roy beat Banna Akter in a tiebreak to win gold after the match was tied at 141-141. Tania Rima won bronze in the same event.

In the mixed recurve event, the pair of Alif and Beauty Roy beat Emdadul Haque Milon and Eti Khatun to win gold by 6-0 set points while Ashim and Rima beat Sohel and Bonna 154-151 to bag mixed compound gold.