SA Games: Bangladesh clinches record 19 golds
The Bangladeshi contingent has clinched a record 19 gold medals in a single edition of the South Asian Games’ history.
The archers made history securing all 10 gold medals in the archery discipline at Pokhara Stadium in Nepal, pushing the country’s tally to 18.
The cricket boys lifted the glory further surpassing the previous record with another gold beating Sri Lanka by seven wickets.
Bangladesh’s earlier best performance at the SA Games was 18 gold medals in 2010, when it was held in Dhaka while the highest number of gold medals won in a single edition of the competition held outside Bangladesh was 7, in the Madras Games in 1995, reports news agency UNB.
Archers Mohammad Ruman Shana, Eti Khatun, Suma Bishwash and Sohel Rana won all 4 gold medals in all individual archery events on the ninth day of the regional meet.
Bangladeshi compound archer Suma clinched the day's first gold beating Anuradha Karunarante of Sri Lanka in the women’s compound singles final.
Another compound archer Sohel bagged the day's second and 16th gold for Bangladesh in men’s compound singles beating Tandin Dorji of Bhutan in the final.
Ruman Shana, who became the first Bangladeshi archer to qualify for the Olympic Games, clinched the third gold beating Kinley Tshering of Bhutan in men’s recurve singles.
Eti Khatun clinched the last archery gold beating Sonam Dema of Bhutan in the final of the women’s recurve singles.
Earlier, Bangladeshi archers brought glory for the country winning all six team gold medals – men’s recurve, women's recurve, mixed recurve, compound men’s, compound women’s and compound mixed – at the same venue on Sunday.
Apart from the day’s six gold medals in archery, Bangladesh women’s cricket team also clinched their first-ever gold in the history of the competition beating Sri Lanka.
Bangladeshi athletes earned three more gold medals – two in weightlifting and one in fencing – on the 7th day of the 10-day seven-nation 13th Asian Games in Nepal.
Famed lifters Mabia Akhter Simanta and Jiarul Islam bagged two gold medals in weightlifting events of the games in Pokhara while Fatema Mujib clinched the first-ever gold medal for Bangladesh in women’s fencing at Kirtipur Covered Hall in Kathmandu.
Bangladesh’s athletes also clinched three gold medals in kumite events of karate on Tuesday apart from Dipu Chakma’s gold in Taekwondo on Monday.
Karate player Humaira Akther brought home the first medal for Bangladesh in the 13th South Asian Games, winning a bronze medal in women's individual kata event in Kathmandu on 2 December.
Along with athletes, Bangladesh booters also failed to bring the glory home as Nepal eliminated Bangladesh U-23 team from the title race of the South Asian Games Men's Football on 8 December.