After much drama, Bangladesh’s fastest man Imranur Rahman reached the final of the 100-metre sprint event of the Islamic Solidarity Games. But in the end, his dream of winning a medal got crushed. He finished sixth out of eight sprinters in the final with a timing of 10.17 seconds on Tuesday.
To win a medal, he would’ve had to finish the race inside 10 seconds. Arthur Cisse from Ivory Coast became the fastest man in the Islamic Solidarity Games with a timing of 9.89 seconds. The top four finished the race inside 10 seconds.
The 29-year-old sprinter, who lives in London, achieved his career-best timing of 10.01 seconds in the heat on Monday. In the semi-final on Tuesday, he finished the race in 10.06 seconds.
But Imranur was a bit fortunate to make it to the final round. Due to false starts, the judges stopped Imranur’s semi-final race twice after starting. In the third go, the race was completed and Imranur took 10.22 seconds to finish the race. But the judges decided to redo the semi-final race one more time.
In the fourth attempt, Imranur lowered his timing and booked a place in the final round. But running four times in the semi-final and then running in the final the same day took its toll on the Bangladeshi athlete.
Earlier in January, Imranur broke a 22-year-old national record in the 100m sprint during the National Athletics Championship in Dhaka with a timing of 10.50 second. Later in March, he had a timing of 6.64 second in the 60m sprint event in the World Indoor Athletics in Belgrade, Serbia. He reached the semi-final of that competition.
After that, the federation officials became optimistic about his chances. Bangladesh Athletic Federation dreamt of winning a medal in this year’s Islamic Solidarity Games with Imranur.
On 16 July, Imranur secured a timing of 10.47 second in the 100m event of the World Championship in Oregon, US. He made his way from the preliminary round to the main competition. But he couldn’t compete in the heat due to an injury.
Recently, he timed 10.46 second in the 100m event of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Imranur was disappointed with his timing in the Games. He then secured his career best timing of 10.01 seconds in Turkiye, which is incredible for a Bangladeshi sprinter.