Juvenile athlete Mezbah Ahmed of Bangladesh Navy retained his title as the fastest man of the country in 100m sprint while BKSP athlete Shirin Akter was crowned the new queen of the track after winning gold in the women’s 100m sprint in the 38th National Athletics Championship at the Army Stadium yesterday.
BJMC topped the medal chart to finish as champions winning 11 gold, 13 silver and nine bronze while Navy followed them in second place despite winning the same number of gold along with three silver and two bronze. Army finished third with nine gold, 15 silver and 11 bronze.
Mezbah, the former athlete of BKSP who also clinched 100m title in the 8th Bangladesh Games, clocked the fastest time in recent years 10.52s and also broke his own personal record to clinch the first spot. Kazi Shah Imran of Navy and Rajat Kanti of BJMC won silver and bronze medals clocking 10.80s and 10.85s respectively.
The 18-year-old from Bagerhat, Mezbah also claimed 200m spring title on the opening day and for the first time he won both 100m and 200m title. His previous record was 10.75s in the last Bangladesh Games.
In the absence of Nazmun Nahar Beauty, BKSP’s Shirin Akter bagged the women’s 100m title crossing the touchline in 11.84s, 0.51 seconds less than silver winner Irin Akter of BKSP. BJMC’s Papia Rani Sarkar finished third clocking 12.69s. Shirin finished second in both 100m and 200m spring in the last Bangladesh Games.
In the day’s other events, Shafiqul Islam won gold in men’s hammer throw; Nazma Akter grabbed gold in women’s javelin throw; Arifuzzaman Raju finished first in men’s high jump; Sumi Khatun and Mehedi Hassan won gold in men’s and women’s 800m; Hazera Khatun won gold in women’s shot-put.
Shohagi Akter, Nasima Akter, Papia Rani Sarkar and Beauty won gold in women’s 4*400m relay while Ruhul Biswas, Sabbir Hossain, Alamgir Hossain and Swapon Ali claimed gold in men’s relay.
