Sana goes down fighting

Bangladesh's best prospect in archery, Ruman Sana, was eliminated from the pre-quarterfinals of the men's individual recurve event at the GBK archery ground today.

The 23-year-old, who qualified in third position on the previous day with a score of 677 -- the best ever by a Bangladeshi archer -- lost against Indonesia’s Agata Salsabirau Ega by 6-4 set points after a neck-and-neck fight in the race for the quarterfinals.

He had got bye in the 1/32 elimination round due to his qualification feat before the young archer breezed past Thamwong Witthaya of Thailand in the following round.

He started the game against the Indonesian archer poorly, losing first two sets before bouncing back by winning the next two sets. But in the deciding set, he scored 28 while his opponent, who was a semifinalist in Olympics, shot 29 points.

"After tying before the final set, I didn't expect him (Agata) to shoot so well. He did unexpectedly well. I'm satisfied with my score in the qualification round, which I don't think will be broken by anyone from Bangladesh anytime soon,” Sana said after his defeat.

Bangladesh's other archer, Ibrahim Sheikh lost his 1/16 elimination round against Li Jialun of China by 6-2 set points after beating a Laos opponent 6-0 in the previous round. Among the women, 16-year-old Eti Khatun lost against a Filipino counterpart by 6-5 set points while Nasrin Akter lost against a Tajik opponent by 6-2 set points.

Sagar ends sorry campaign

The country’s best swimmer Mahfizur Rahman Sagar finished his campaign with a 35th place finish among 47 swimmers in 100m freestyle event with a timing of 53.59 seconds, 01.25 seconds slower than his personal best. He had finished 36th among 51 swimmers in 50m freestyle after opting out of 200m freestyle event.

These games were billed as a platform to better individual performance, but very few athletes have so far been able to even match their best.

16-year-old swimmer Khadiza Akter Brishti finished 27th among 30 swimmers in 50m breaststroke event, clocking 39.57 seconds, more than 8.5 seconds slower than the fastest qualifier.