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Archery's old guard feeling the heat

Sports Reporter
With the vision of winning an archery medal in the 2020 Olympics, German coach Martin Frederick has brought a drastic change in structure of domestic competitions to find new archers, and the change is seemingly paying off.
The just-concluded Teer 10th National Archery Championships unearthed some new faces who emerged from nowhere to reach the finals in three events - men's and women's recurve individual and men's compound individual. One of those three was won gold by outshining country's recognised archers, who had either won gold medals at international level or had been champions at national level.
Abdur Rahman Alif, Diya Siddique and Mithu Rahman were exceptional in the recent championships where the latter bagged gold medal in men’s compound individual event while the former two won silver medals in their respective recurve individual events.
Top players like Roman Sana, Tamimul Islam, Emdadul Haque Milon, Ibrahim Sheikh Rezwon, Beauty Roy, Shyamoli Roy, Mathui Pru Marma, Hira Moni were outshone by the newcomers while the performance of old ones such as Abul Kashem Mamum, Ashim Kumar Das, Nazmul Huda, Milon Mollah, Sheikh Sajib, Bonya Akter and Roksana Akter was unimpressive compared to new faces like Mithu, Sohel Rana and Ritu Akter.
The failure of the established archers may be deemed as a warning sign for them, but it is also a strong message of the arrival of new archers.
Five-time national champion Sana believes the newcomers are giving the seniors a hard time but they are also ready to take the challenge in coming days.
"Junior archers have really done well and the level of competition is now much higher than previous times. And each archer is working hard to survive in the new environment. I think the juniors will take our position in near future if they get proper guidance," said Sana, who returned from a training course in Switzerland, yet had to be content with a bronze medal in men's individual recurve.
"The arrival of newcomers is a sign of improvement in archery. New faces have been competing neck-and-neck against the seniors as [Martin] Frederick has brought drastic changes in competition, selection and training system," national local coach Ziaul Haque said, adding that three ranking tournaments are being held regularly before national championships.
"These results are not upset; rather the newcomers are really doing well alongside the old ones who are also improving upon their performance," said Sajjad Hossain, Dhaka Army AC coach.
"As ranking tournament is being held every three months, the archers are getting the opportunity to prepare round-the-year and these ranking tournaments are helping the newcomers increase their confidence and rectify their weaknesses," opined Sajjad, country's first international gold medallist archer.