SPORTS REPORTER

Despite earning a direct qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, archer Sagor Islam has been overlooked for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) scholarship for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics due to a recent dip in performance.

Sagor became the third Bangladeshi athlete to qualify directly for the Olympic Games, following in the footsteps of golfer Siddiqur Rahman and archer Ruman Sana.

However, the young archer was not nominated for the monthly IOC scholarship, worth approximately US$1,500, which runs through to the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Instead, Asia Cup gold medalist Abdur Rahman Alif has been nominated in the recurve division. Himu Bacher and Puspita Zaman have been selected in the compound division, which will be included in the Olympic Games for the first time.

“We nominated the names of archers on the basis of their performances, and Alif was ahead of Sagor, who is now even struggling to secure his place in the squad for the upcoming World Archery Championship,” Tanvir Ahmed, general secretary of the Bangladesh Archery Federation, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Referring to the case of expatriate archer Ruman Sana, Tanvir added: “We don’t want to make another example like Ruman Sana, who also struggled to secure his place in the national squad after qualifying directly for the Tokyo Olympics.”

Ruman, who had received the IOC scholarship earlier, was also not considered for the Paris Olympic scholarship despite his direct qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.

Besides archery, three shooters -- Robiul Islam Tomas, Kamrunnahar Koly, and Shaira Afrefin -- have also been nominated for the IOC scholarship. The Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) sent the names of all six athletes to the IOC last month for final approval.