Sumi Akter broke her previous personal best in the women's 400m event, yet the Bangladesh athlete still finished 14th out of 18 participants in her debut Asian Games sprint in Jakarta, Indonesia Saturday.
The 21-year old athlete from Manikganj clocked 57.16s to be ranked fourth out of six in her respective heat. Her previous best was 57.20s in accordance with the official site of the Asiad, but Sumi and her coach informed that it was 57.90s, registered at the last National Athletics Championship.
Sumi's desire was evident during the run and the first thing she spoke about after coming out of the track is that she is yet to deliver her best timing, and complained of not having enough preparation time.
"The camp was for only two months or less. If I had trained for a longer time I could have even broken Bangladesh's best timing. Now I'm looking forward to bettering my timing in the South Asian Games and win a medal there. But we have to camp for a longer time," said.
Bangladesh sprinter Sumi Akter registered her best ever personal timing as the heats of the women's 400m took place in Jakarta, Indonesia Saturday.https://t.co/t3PEMCubTd#SUMI #AKTER #SUMIAKTER #BANGLADESH #ASIANGAMES #ASIANGAMES2018 #ASIAD #ASIAD2018 #ATHLETICS #ASIAN #GAMES
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) August 25, 2018
Not so long ago Sumi’s preferred events were the 800m and 1500m but she gave more priority to 400m in the last two months.
“If I concentrate solely on only one event (400m), then my timing will improve over time but we need to camp for a longer period. All the other athletes participating here practise throughout the year,” she explained.
Meanwhile, the surrounding of the main stadium of Gelora Bung Karno, which hosted the dazzling opening ceremony and will also host the closing ceremony, was full of spectators since the morning.
There was also a decent gathering in the gallery for the athletic events which got underway Saturday.
Bangladesh’s @asiangames2018 journey in 11 out of 14 disciplines they have taken part in is set to end Sunday with the remaining events of shooting and archery.https://t.co/aktlgtNF5y#ASIANGAMES #BANGLADESH #ASIAD #ASIAN #GAMES #ASIANGAMES2018 #SHOOTING #ARCHERY #ASIAD2018 #AG
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) August 25, 2018
One half of Bangladesh’s two-member athletics team, Mohammad Abu Taleb participated in the men’s 400m event in the morning but got eliminated disappointingly after finishing his run as the last man from his respective heat.
The 22-year old sprinter clocked 50.97s to be ranked 27th out of a total of 28 participants where Indian athlete Muhammed Anas Yahiya took 45.63s to be placed at the top, and qualified for the semi-final, along with his compatriot Arokia Rajiv.
The timing of Taleb is nowhere near his personal best. He said after finishing his run, “Couldn’t have done better, and didn’t even cross my personal best of 48.90s, which I recorded in December last year. Not happy with my run in the last 100m.”
