Archery show begins

The 20th Asian Archery Championships was officially inaugurated at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday morning in presence of the game's world, Asian and local administrators. Around 200 archers from 33 countries will be taking part in the six-day competition, which will be contested in 10 events.

The opening ceremony was a low-key affair and there were no official speeches made by the dignitaries as focus quickly shifted to the archers, who got to practice for the first time at the chief venue, the Bangabandhu National Stadium. Today the archers will participate in the ranking round, which determines which player will compete against whom in different stages of the events, while the main competition will start from tomorrow.

The just-elected first vice-president of World Archery Asia (WAA) and general secretary of Bangladesh Archery Federation (BAF) Kazi Razibuddin Ahmed Chapal, later told reporters that it was proud moment for the country's sports.

“This is a proud moment for Bangladesh, not just the game of archery. Our archery hasn't hosted an event of such magnitude before. Asian archery championships are almost similar to world archery championships as most of the powerful nations belong to Asia,” he said.

He urged people to turn up at the big bowl to watch the world stars and cheer on local participants when the tournament gets underway.

While the fight for medals is expected to be dominated by countries like South Korea, India, China, Chinese Taipei and Japan, Bangladesh are expecting at least a few of its competitors to cross the quarterfinals stage and improve on their collective position of ninth, which they had achieved in the 2015 edition.

Syed Shahed Reza, the secretary general of Bangladesh Olympic Association who was present as chief guest of the occasion, said the apex body of sports federations was all for promoting archery as it has promise at the international stage.

“Archery has already brought laurels for the country from several international meets. The more international tournaments we will hold here, the more will our reputation grow and the more will local players come out,” Reza said.

He also added that the authorities concerned are mulling over the idea of bringing in a foreign coach for the long-term training of local archers. “There is no alternative to long-term training for attaining success. We are talking with other countries in a bid to bring in foreign coaches and conduct long-term training,” he said.

The opening ceremony was attended, among others, by World Archery Federation's vice president Sanguan Kosavinta, World Archery Asia's secretary general Um Sung Ho, BAF's president Lt. General Mohammad Moinul Islam and other high-ups of the game.