Selim Hossain will be looking forward to end the country’s 37-year medal drought in any individual event when the Bangladeshi boxer lock horns with Japan’s Shudai Harada in the men’s 51-57kg quarterfinals of the 19th Asian Games at Hangzhou Gymnasium in China Tuesday.
According to Asiad boxing rules, every athlete in the last-four battles is up for medals, including two individual bronze for both the losing semi-finalists.
Selim, who earlier defeated boxers from Sri Lanka and Tajikistan in the knockout stages, will need just another win to confirm Bangladesh’s second medal after a lone bronze from the women’s cricket team.
In any individual event, Bangladesh could not manage a single medal since 1986 Seoul Asian Games when boxer Mosharraf Hossain bagged silver in the heavyweight category.
Selim hopes to put an end to the long drought after beating 22-year old Harada, who placed 33rd in the last World Championships earlier this year.
“The hunger for victory increases when you win a bout in boxing. I’m confident after winning two matches. I trained and sweated a lot. I believe I can win the next match,” said the 31-year old who ranked ninth in the Commonwealth Games last year.
Ruman and Co into last eight
Recurve archery team comprising Sagor Islam, Ruman Shana and Hakim Ahmed Rubel shot off Vietnam in a hard-fought contest to make it to the quarter-finals.
They won the game by 5-4 sets through shoot-off points after the stipulated eight sets ended in equal margin.
Other archers from Bangladesh however, have seen the exit door from the competition despite a few promising displays in the elimination round.
In the recurve women’s individual event, Diya Siddique thrashed her Nepalese counterpart 6-0 in the 1/32 Elimination before comfortably beating an Uzbekistan archer in the 1/16 but lost the pre-quarter game against her Korean opponent.
Rubel crushed archers of Qatar and Iran in the 1/32 and 1/16 elimination match of men’s individual recurve event by similar 6-0 margin but lost to Indian archer narrowly by 5-6.
In compound, Bonna Akter lost to Kazakhstan’s archer by 141-140 in the 1/16 elimination in individual event and her pair with Mohammad Ashikuzzaman conceded 154-153 defeat against Vietnam in mixed team event’s 1/8 elimination round.
Weightlifter Mabia disappoints
Mabia Akter Shimanta was nowhere near her best as she finished fourth out of five weightlifters in the Group B of women’s 64kg event.
She lifted a total pf 175kg (77kg in snatch and 98kg in clean and jerk), six kilos less than her personal best.
Two more wins for bridge team
Bangladesh bridge side defeated South Korea and Philippines on the third day of round robin league but lost to Pakistan and ranked at ninth.
Huge defeat for hockey side
Bangladesh hockey team suffered a thrashing 12-0 defeat against India in their last group fixture and will be up against Oman in the sixth-seventh place deciding match Friday.
