Imranur, Sonia cap off Bangladesh’s sorry campaign

Bangladesh's 11th campaign in the Summer Olympic Games finished yesterday as disappointingly, if not more, as the country's previous 10 campaigns.

Sprinter Imranur Rahman pulled the curtains down on a sorry campaign, which had generated some expectation due to his presence and that of archer Sagor Islam, who had qualified directly for Paris 2024.

Imranur, the country's three-time fastest man and national record holder, failed miserably in his attempt to qualify for the main heats of 10m sprint event.

The 31-year-old Bangladeshi sprinter clocked 10.73 seconds to finish his race -- 0.62 seconds slower than his personal best at the Stade de France.

Imranur eventually finished 25th among 45 competitors, with top 16 among them qualifying for the main heats.

Around the same time at the Paris La Defense Arena, swimmer Sonia Khatun finished 64th among 79 competitors in the heats of the 50m freestyle event. The 25-year-old was 0.42 seconds off her personal best mark.

The two frustrating results capped off another humiliating campaign for Bangladesh, the most populous nation to have never produced an Olympic medallist.

Enthekhabul Hamid, Bangladesh delegation's chef de mission, said he wasn't surprised by the performance of the athletes.

"Those who came with wildcards were expected to perform like these" Hamid, also the general secretary of Bangladesh Shooting Sports Federation, told The Daily Star yesterday over phone from Paris.

The Games started with frustration for Bangladesh as archer Sagor, the only athlete to have qualified for these games, finished 45th among 64 in the ranking round before losing in straight sets against three-time Olympic medallist Mauro Nespoli of Italy.

Hamid felt that stage fright and lack of experience at big events was the undoing of Sagor.

"Everyone had high hopes of Sagor. But he's only 18 and he got nervous in the main event," Hamid said. "This is symptomatic of all athletes. They don't often participate in such premier events, where only top athletes participate. So it's natural to fail if you're not used to competing at this level."

Shooter Robiul Islam was the next to be eliminated from the Games, finishing 43rd among 49 competitors in 10m air rifle event.

Only swimmer Samiul Islam Rafi managed to improve on his previous best timing. Even though he finished 69th among 79 competitors in 100m freestyle, Rafi's timing was 0.02 second better than his previous best.

Hamid felt that long-term training was what helped Rafi and he believes training and quality coaching is the only way to achieve success in such global events.

"The reason Rafi did relatively well is the one-year training he was given in Thailand," Hamid opined. "There is no alternative to long-term training under good coaching staff. Government should increase sports budget so that we can send our athletes to more international tournaments to give them exposure."