If anything that had touched the whole country the most from Bangladesh’s participation in the 12th South Asian Games and let them know what is happening on the other side of the border was largely down to Mabia Akter Simanta, not only for her amazing achievement of winning the Games’ first gold medal for Bangladesh but also, notably, for her tearful moment while the national anthem was being played in the presentation ceremony.
Known as South Asia’s Olympics, the SA Games will conclude today. Out of 226 events from 22 sport disciplines, Bangladesh managed to win only four gold medals in 12 days and Mabia’s gold was the first of its kind after women’s weightlifting had been introduced in this edition.
The girl, who lifted a total of 149kg to clinch gold, arrived home last Thursday and returned to her regular struggling life. She was not felicitated upon her return and it has been nearly a week. No representative from the government or the weightlifting federation contacted her and sent a simple “congratulation” or “welcome” note. It is the only thing that made her a “little sad”.
Mabia’s orientation in weightlifting came through the hands of her uncle Shahadat, a boxing coach with Bangladesh Ansar, six years ago. Before that she never heard of the sport of weightlifting. “During that time there were not many girls involved in boxing so I opted for weightlifting. I started enjoying the game and the federation was also very helpful,” said the 18-year old yesterday.
Two years later, in her first international event away from home, Mabia won bronze in the Asian Championship in Nepal and the following year she clinched silver medal in the 2013 Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in Malaysia. In 2014, she became second and third in the Afro-Asian Cup in Uzbekistan and Prince Cup in Thailand respectively.
With each passing day, Mabia’s performance graph shot upwards and her biggest achievement came last year when she clinched gold in the 63kg weight category in the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in Pune.
“Everyone had a lot of expectations on me but I really did not go for gold because of my hand injury. I was in a lot of pain and could not give my hundred percent. But I was determined to give my best and when that moment came, I was unable to hold back my tears,” an emotional Mabia said before adding, “It was the third day of the tournament but nobody from Bangladesh won a single gold. After my name was announced and the national anthem was being played I cried but they were tears of joy.”
