Wushu athlete Jinnat Akter received a warm reception at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport early Saturday after returning home with a long-awaited bronze medal from the women’s 52kg event at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
Jinnat arrived in Dhaka at around 2:40am, where officials from the Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA), Ministry of Youth and Sports, National Sports Council (NSC) and Bangladesh Wushu Federation welcomed her with flowers.
Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Mohammad Ullah, National Sports Council Sports Director Mohammad Zahed Parvez Chowdhury, BOA executive committee member Russell Kabir Sumon and officials of the Bangladesh Wushu Federation were present at the airport.
Jinnat’s bronze is particularly significant as it ended a 40-year wait for an individual Asian Games medal for a Bangladeshi athlete.
The last Bangladeshi to win an individual medal at the continental multi-sport event was boxer Mosharraf Hossain, who claimed a bronze at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games.