Timer finally comes back to life

After a long time the country's athletes finally got an accurate impression of their timing as the NRB Commercial Bank 41st National Athletics Championships resumed use of the electronic timer, which was previously dysfunctional, when the tournament kicked off at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

The Bangladesh Athletics Federation (BAF) took the initiative to repair the electronic timer following a three-day visit by Asian Athletics Associations president Dahlan Al-Hamad, who declared the championships open as chief guest on Friday.

This decision by the BAF clearly pleased athletes as they can now see their real timings in the tournament for the first time since the timing device broke down halfway through the 2010 South Asian Games. After that, officials relied on hand-timing to adjudicate events in competitions.

“It is really pleasing that I have completed my running in a domestic competition under the digital machine after a log gap,” said Bangladesh Navy's Shirin Akter, who became the women's 200m sprint champion with a timing of 25.56 seconds.

“Running under the electronic timer is always a positive thing for an athlete. He/she can know the real timing and can improve according to it because hand-timing is always confusing for athletes,” continued the last edition's fastest woman.

Shirin did have a complaint though as it seems the electronic device did not work properly. Before the 200m sprint began, Shirin attempted to settle into the starting block four times before the sensors finally reacted on the fifth attempt.

“I could not concentrate properly due to the repeated attempts but I am happy to finish first in the 200m sprint after skipping the same event in the previous three editions due to my studies,” said Shirin, who beat Susmita Ghosh (26.19 seconds) for the top spot.

It was the fourth gold medal in 200m sprint for Shirin, who will also be competing for her sixth goal medal in 100m sprint.

In the men's 200m sprint, M Abdur Rouf of Bangladesh Navy overcame Shariful Islam to become the champion by clocking in at 21.90 seconds while Shariful of Bangladesh Army took 22.05 seconds to finish second.

“I bagged a gold medal in my first appearance in the 200m sprint event though I became runner-up in 100m sprint in the last edition,” said Rouf, adding that he will be running in the 100m sprint with a target of breaking the dominance of Mezbah Ahmed, the six-time fastest man of Bangladesh.

In another event of the day, Azharul Islam set a new discus throw record by clearing 44.37 metres to win his overall 32nd gold medal.

He eclipsed his own record, set in 2006, of 44.06 meters. However, the 47-year-old athlete from Bangladesh Navy had his best performance in the 2010 South Asian Games where he cleared 44.98 meters to win bronze.

Though the 41st edition of the NAC began in presence of AAA president Dalhan Al-Hamad, the turnout of participants is poor. Only 40 teams, which includes just 17 district sports associations, took part in the march-past while some of the other districts had no athletes present during the rally. Approximately 500 participants were expected to turn up but it seems the true number of athletes present at the competition is hardly half of that.