Will dominance mean improvement?

Following their success in the 3rd South Asian Archery Championships in March, the Bangladeshi archers are expected to assert their dominance once again in the upcoming 2nd ISSF Islamic Solidarity Archery Championships, beginning at the Maulna Bhasani Hockey Stadium tomorrow.

If holders Bangladesh can repeat their feat of winning six gold medals out of the 10 they grabbed in the first edition of the ISSF Islamic Archery Championships, no doubt it will be widely praised, but where will this success stand in comparison to more global events such as the Asian Archery Championships, World Cup or Olympics?

The answer probably lies not in the number of medals they win but rather the accuracy the archers can achieve in qualification and elimination rounds.

The archers have been training under German coach Martin Frederick since late February, after the Bangladesh Archery Federation appointed the 50-year-old coach for five years, with a target of winning at least a medal in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Under Frederick's guidance, Bangladesh grabbed six gold medals in March's South Asian Archery Championships while competing against some young Indian archers but the scores of most of the archers, aside from a couple, were not satisfactory. The scores of most of these archers were far less than those of top Asian archers, most of whom are dominating world archery.

Roman Sana and Ibrahim Sheikh were the two Bangladeshi archers who increased their scores to score 667 and 650 points respectively out of 720 points, which is an increase of one and 51 points from their scores in the Asian Archery Championships in November, 2017.  However, promising archers Tamimul Islam and Hakim Ahmed Rubel scored less than what they had during those championships where Korean archers Kim Jongho, Lee Woo Seok and Indian Atanu Das scored 684, 682 and 680 points out of 720 respectively in the qualification round of recurve men's event.

In the women's recurve event, Nasrin Akter increased her score from 582 to 597 points but Radia Akter Shapla (572), Rabeya Khatun (570) and Beauty Roy (552) failed to improve their scores compared to their scores from November, 2017. Korea's Choi Minseon, Lee Eun Gyeong and Ki Bo Bae hit the top three scorers -- 684, 677 and 673 points respectively in the qualification round.

It has been learnt that the archers have improved their scores a bit in the ongoing training camp after the completion of the South Asian Archery Championships, but those increases are quite insignificant.

Roman, Tamimul and Ibrahim are scoring 670, 660 and 650 points respectively while Nasrin, Shapla and Beauty are scoring 600, 550 and 560 points respectively, which is still far less than the top Asian archers.

“Perfection is the key in archery. If an archer can make good scores in qualification rounds by hitting a bulls eye the maximum number of times (maximum 10 point per shot), he/she has good opportunity of producing good results in the elimination round and winning medals,” Bangladesh archery team's assistant coach Ziaur Rahman explained yesterday.

Echoing the sentiment, Roman said, “If an archer has the good ability of hitting the bulls eye number of times, he/she will definitely score well in the qualification round which will give the archer an edge in the elimination round.”

However, Roman added, “Throwing the arrow perfectly is not the only condition for winning medals, other things such as consistency, mental toughness, confidence, external factors such as wind also play a part in the performance and winning medals for archers.”

The best archer from Bangladesh also pointed out that financial security plays a key role behind the confidence and mental ease of an archer.

“Things such as fear of opponents, over-confidence, wind, nervousness and psychological barriers can be overcome by taking part in a lot of international competitions, but Bangladeshi archers can't concentrate much on their individual improvement until they get the financial security for future.”