No home hopes after Urmi exit

After the exits of the country’s top-ranked men and women shuttlers from the qualifying or final stages of Yonex-Sunrise Bangladesh International Challenge badminton tournament, home hopes rested on fifth-ranked shuttler Urmi Akter but an injury forced her to forfeit the women’s singles pre-quarterfinal against India’s Ira Sharman, which was supposed to take place at the Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Indoor Stadium yesterday.

Urmi, who won the mixed doubles bronze with Salam Kahan in the just concluded SA Games, did not show up to the court following an injury to her right ankle sustained during Wednesday’s match against Maisa Fathuhulla Ismail of Maldives. The treatment was not sufficient and the ankle swelled up overnight. In line with the walkover rules, she and Dulali Halder also forfeited the women’s doubles event.

However, Urmi has no regrets and is now focusing her attentions on producing better results in the junior competition of the challenge, which is scheduled to start on December 17 at the same venue.

“I didn’t take the risk because the injury could have worsened had I forcefully played the match. I’m now looking forward to playing the junior tournament with the hope of performing better than at the senior level,” the girl from Pabna told reporters at the venue yesterday.

The shuttler however had some regrets for not getting enough opportunities to train and develop her skills.

“To be honest, our training is conducted ahead of a tournament and beyond that, there are no opportunities to train. However, I want to thank my coach Rashid sir, who helped me come this far,” Urmi said. “All sub-continent countries, except Bhutan, have gone past us. Nepal is a fast-improving nation that conducted long-term training under a foreign coach for the SA Games.

“But we don’t have such opportunities to train under a foreign coach. It is really hard for us to build a career in badminton, which realistically has no future in Bangladesh,” said Urmi, who also won a bronze medal in the 2016 SA Games while paired with Shapla Akter.

“For the first time I lost to a Nepalese player in the SA Games and the experience in Nepal was really bad. Our badminton has gradually been going backwards. The bottom line is that there are no plans in badminton but there is a lot of natural talent in this discipline. The federation must show the way up for upcoming players and arrange training for at least seven to eight months,” said national champion Shapla, who partnered Alina Sultana in the women’s doubles and lost to the Indian pair of K Maneesha and Rutaparna Panda 21-16, 10-21, 16-21 in the quarterfinals yesterday.