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Asian Youth Games

Big contingent, little hope

Sports Reporter
The number of athletes and officials of Bangladesh contingent for the 2nd Asian Youth Games has been doubled (29) compared to the first edition (15), but the Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) is not confident whether the young athletes can bring any laurel to the nation from the Games which will be held in Nanjing, China from August 16-24.
Nineteen athletes from nine disciplines - athletics, swimming, shooting, weightlifting, golf, badminton, basketball and taekwondo - have been training for the Games since June 15, which means they will be leaving for China on August 14, with two months of training behind them.
"We are expecting the shooters, golfers and weight-lighters to perform well and they may get close to the medals," said member secretary of BOA training and development committee, wing
commander Rafiqul Islam at the official press conference yesterday.
Shooting coach Syed Asbab Ali is hoping that Sharmin Akter of BKSP and Sharmin Akter of Army would move into the eight-shooter final. However, the average shooting scores of these two ranged between 383 and 389 points during practice, while it is very difficult to move into the final round with any score below 395 out of a total of400.
Asbab, a BKSP coach, also believes that the male shooters too have the ability to qualify for the final round, who have averaged scores between 482 and 488 out of500.
Mohiuddin Ahmed, general secretary of Bangladesh Weightlifting Federation, kept his hope on two weightlifters - Mabia Aktar and Jahura Aktar Reshma - citing that both of them have improved during training and will be able to lift more weight than their previous best.
"Both the weightlifters have improved a lot in training," said Mohiuddin. "Besides, Reshma, who won a bronze medal in the Doha Asian Weightlifting Championship, is lifting six to seven kilograms weight more than she earlier used to. So we can expect a medal from her."
Golfer Afrian Rahman however did not make any promises but said his target is to finish among top five in the 18-hole-competition where his compatriot Liza Akter will also be participating.
Though there is very any slim chance of grabbing medals from shooting, weightlifting and golf, the BOA is sending a mega contingent to the Games, at a considerable expense.
"We may not win a medal in the Games but we can't stop sending our team. We have to develop our sports through participating in such games regularly," opined BOA secretary general Syed Shahed Reza at the press conference.