Gymnasts through to finals, TT team sees quarters exit

Bangladesh gymnasts Ali Kader Haque and Abu Saeed Rafi qualified for the finals in the Islamic Solidarity Games on Wednesday after they scored 12.950 and 12.175 respectively in the vaulting table discipline of the Men’s artistic gymnastics.

Team-wise, Bangladesh stood sixth overall amongst 12 countries, while Rafi placed 14th in the individual all-around event leaving behind 14 other participants.

Ali expressed his excitement to compete in the finals and assured he would try his best to score points.

“I’m very excited, quite nervous too. I want to try a different vault to get some more points. It’s a hard competition. Turkey’s really good and they have lots of good gymnasts. I’m going to try my best and see what happens,” he said before the finals.

It was elation for the gymnasts, but the table tennis team had to see the other side of the coin on Wednesday. After qualifying for the quarter-finals by beating the Maldives in 3-2 sets, the Bangladesh table tennis team exited the competition as they lost by 3-0 sets to Yemen in the quarters.

The women had a hard time on Thursday as well as the Women’s handball team were beaten by Senegal 45-25.

Ummay Hafsa Rumky and Ritu Akhtar will take part in the Women’s high jump event on Thursday.