Bangladesh swimmers, weightlifters disappoint in Commonwealth Games

The Bangladesh swimmers and weightlifters produced a disappointing show Friday in the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. In the men's 50m butterfly, Mohammad Nahid finished sixth in the heat, the Bangladesh Navy swimmer taking 26.56s to complete his swim. Nahid exited in the very first heat. In the women's 50m freestyle, Kushtia's Nazma Khatun clocked 31.1s in the first heat but like Nahid, the 19-year old Nazma too bowed out of the freestyle event. Nazma finished fifth out of six participants. The top 16 finishers from the heats moved to the next round but Nazma failed to make the cut, after finishing 37th out of a total of 41 participants. Nazma will get one more opportunity to display her talent as she will take to the pool once again Saturday in heat one of the 50m butterfly. In the men's 100m breaststroke, youngster Ariful Islam  finished 20th out of 29 participants in the heat. The 19-year old swimmer from Kishoreganj clocked 1:07.51s to be placed seventh out of as many participants in heat three of the event. Ariful will take part in heat five of the 50m breaststroke event Sunday.

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Also read: Bangladesh eye medals in Commonwealth Games

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Meanwhile in weightlifting, Fullopoti Chakma finished 12th in the women's 53kg event while in the men's category, Shimul Kanti Sinha failed to grab a place in the 69kg event. Fullopoti lifted a total of 153kg, including 68kg in snatch and 85kg in clean and jerk. The 31-year old Shimul, hailing from Moulvibazar, lifted 115kg in his first and only successful attempt in snatch but failed in all three attempts in clean and jerk while trying to lift 140kg. Fatema Akter was placed 13th out of 15 participants in the women's 58kg weight category with a total lift of 154kg. The 26-year old weightlifter lifted 66kg in snatch and 88kg in clean and jerk. Fatema took part in the last two editions of the Games in Glasgow 2014 and Delhi 2010 where she lifted a total of 165 and 164kg respectively. The Bangladesh shooters are now preparing themselves for their respective events. The shooting discipline begins Sunday in Queensland. Earlier on the opening day of the Games Thursday, Bangladesh boxing duo Robin Mia and Mohammad al Amin couldn't take part in their respective event after their coach Kazi Abdul Mannan failed to attend the technical committee meeting two days earlier. Robin and Al Amin were scheduled to participate in the men’s 60kg and 64kg event respectively. The three-member boxing team are expected to return home Saturday.