Home ›› 20 Nov 2021 ›› Sport
Archers Diya Siddique and Mohammad Hakim Ahmed Rubel made history for Bangladesh on Friday as they claimed the country’s first-ever silver medal in the Asian Archery Championships.
In the final of the recurve mixed team event at the Army Stadium in Dhaka, Diya and Rubel lost by 1-5 set points to tournament favourites South Korea’s Su Jung Ryoo and Seungyun Lee.
That defeat denied Bangladesh their first-ever gold in the competition but ensured the country’s first silver medal in the competition.
In the previous eight editions that Bangladesh participated in, they failed to win any medals. This time around, Bangladesh managed three medals as they won two bronze medals alongside the silver. The bronze medals came in the men’s and women’s recurve team events.
Diya and Rubel both won a couple of medals each as they were part of the recurve women’s and men’s teams.
After the match, archer Diya told The Business Post that she was happy that they won the first-ever silver medal for Bangladesh.
“I am very happy to win Bangladesh’s first silver medal in Asian Archery. It’s a big achievement for us. We were hoping for more, but still, very happy to win the medal,” she told TBP.
Diya went on to add that they will be trying to do better next time around.
“We wanted to win the gold but could not. Hopefully, we will be able to do better in the next edition,” she said.
After the final, Rubel said that they had to learn a lot from this defeat. He said, “We have a lot to learn from this defeat. We have to sort out our mistakes in the championship, and we’ll try to correct these mistakes later.”
Bangladesh coach Martin Frederick said that he was happy with the performance of the archers.
“I am happy with their performance. They all played well. We may not have won gold here, but we have won silver. They’ll need more time to perform here though they shot very good arrows in the last set,” he said.
South Korea reigned supreme in the other two finals of the day as well as they bagged the gold medals for the men’s and women’s recurve team events.
In the recurve men’s event, they beat India 6-2 to win the medal. India were defeated in the women’s final too, where the South Korean team won by 6-0 set points.
India, besides their two silver medals of the day, won another bronze medal as they beat Uzbekistan by 6-0 set points.
