'Want archers to reach quarterfinals'
“We want our archers to reach the quarterfinal stage in the Asian Games because after that stage anything can happen. So I have asked our archers to try to reach the quarterfinal stage,” Bangladesh Archery Federation (BAF) general secretary Kazi Razibuddin Ahmed Chapal said yesterday.
He was speaking at a press conference arranged to outline BAF's sponsor City Group's evaluation of the first year's partnership and budget proposal for the second year, held at the Bangladesh Olympic Association auditorium yesterday.
Bangladesh will be represented by 13 archers -- seven male and six female -- in four different archery events at the 18th Asian Games, to be held in Jakarta from August 18 to September 2.
Although Bangladeshi archers have won a few laurels at home and abroad in international events, expectations are not too high; however, according to speakers, the performance graph is mostly moving upward.
Shoeb Mohammad Asaduzzaman, executive director of City Group, said they have decided to increase the budget for the second year of the five-year deal from Tk 1.8 crore to 2.2 crore, thanks to the increase in performance and the transparency in the use of funds.
“In the first year, we have done a few things including sponsoring the Asian Archery Championship, Youth Talent Hunt, National Archery Championship, appointing a foreign coach, improvement of archery training centre, etc. And we have been satisfied with the effort of the archers and the federation,” he said.
“This is a performance-based budget. Since we are satisfied as we've seen four to five out of our eight set targets of reaching a certain score have been achieved by the archers, we have decided to increase the budget,” Asaduzzaman added.
He also outlined the plan for the next one year, which includes sending archers to three world events, holding a national youth championship and a national championship among others.
The press conference was also attended by the federation's vice-president Mahfuzur Rahman Siddiqui, chairman of development and training committee Anisur Rahman Dipu and national team coach Martin Frederick.
Later, the guests handed over scholarships to 10 promising archers and greeted the Asian Games bound contingent, which will be leaving for Jakarta on August 17.
