No good news from Baku

After two consecutive days of success, the Bangladeshi athletes failed to get into contention for any medals on the third day of action at the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku, Azerbaijan yesterday.

Bangladesh's campaign in Baku had started with Rabbi Hasan Munna's silver medal in the 10m air rifle event on Saturday before Abdullahel Baki and Syeda Atkiya Hasan Disha brought gold from the 10m air rifle team event on Sunday – Bangladesh's first ever gold medal in these games – to heighten their expectations from fellow countrymen.

However, two of the other medal hopefuls failed miserably as Bangladesh's chances of winning any more medals became bleak. Two gold medallists of the South Asian Games – shooter Shakil Ahmed and weightlifter Mabia Akter Simanta – failed to even get close to winning any medals in their respective events.

Shakil, who had won a gold medal in the SA Games 50m air pistol event in India last year, finished 10th out of 21 starters with 535 points in his pet event. The eighth and final qualifier for the final round secured 537 points. The other Bangladeshi shooter in this event, Anwar Hossain, did not start. Yusuf Dikec of Turkmenistan eventually won the gold medal in this event.

Weightlifter Simanta, who had won a gold medal in the women's 63kg weight category from the SA Games, finished sixth among six participants in the same event in Baku yesterday. The country's best female weightlifter lifted a total weight of 178 kilos (77 kilos in snatch, 101 kilos in clean & jerk).

However, this performance is a lot better than her gold medal winning exploit in the SA Games, where she had lifted a total of 149 kilos (67 kilos in snatch and 82 kilos in clean & jerk). Guryeva Polina of Turkmenistan won the gold medal in that event, lifting a total of 193 kilos.

Meanwhile, swimmer Jewel Ahmed failed to qualify for the final of the 100m backstroke event. The 21-year-old swimmer finished 12th out of 14 competitors in semifinals, completing the dash at 1min 3:60sec.