Bangladeshi sprinter Imranur Rahman advances to 100m semifinal

Bangladesh’s fastest man Imranur Rahman advanced to the semifinal of the men’s 100-metre sprint with his best ever timing in the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games held in the Turkish city of Konya on Monday, reports news agency UNB.

Imranur came second in his respective heat of the men’s 100 metres sprint, participated by eight sprinters, with a timing of 10.01 seconds.

Imranur will compete in the semifinal on Tuesday at 4:30pm local time.

Imranur, who set the event’s new national record in the just concluded Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 with a timing of 10:47 seconds, further improved it on Monday.

An 84-member contingent are representing Bangladesh in the Islamic Solidarity Games Konya’ 2022 in eleven disciplines – athletics, archery, fencing, gymnastics, handball, karate, shooting, swimming, table tennis, wrestling and weight-lifting.

Although the formal opening of the Islamic Solidarity Games 2022 will be held on 9 August, a good number of the competitions have already started and some medals were also decided in Konya.

Meanwhile, a 15 member Bangladesh Archery team left the capital for Turkey on Tuesday night at 11:00pm by a Turkish Airlines fight to participate in the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games.

Fencer Fatema Mujib, who won gold medal in the last SAFF Games, will carry the red and green flag in Tuesday’s opening ceremony.

All teams from Bangladesh, except archery and karate, have already reached Turkey to participate in the Games.

Bangladesh archery team comprises 12 archers and three team officials. They will start their campaign in the mega games on 15 August.

Members of the archery team are; Ruman Shana, Hakim Ahmed Rubel, Sagar Islam (recurve men’s), Diya Siddique, Nasrin Akhter, Beauty Roy (recurve women’s) , Mithu Rahman, Mohammad Ashiquzzaman, Sohel Rana (compound men’s), Shymoly Rai, Pushpita Zaman and Roxana Akhter (compound women’s).

The officials are, Sohel Akram (team manager), Martin Frederick (head coach) and Mohammad Hasan (assistant coach).

Besides, general secretary of Bangladesh Archery Federation (BAF) Kazi Rajibuddin Ahmed Chapal will act as the technical delegate of the games archery while Tanveer Ahmed of Bangladesh will also act as the archery judge of the games. Both are now staying in Turkey.