Aiming for the bullseye 

There are around 50-odd sporting federations in Bangladesh, some of which have already existed for over five decades. Apart from cricket, football, hockey, shooting and chess, most of the federations suffer from a lack of spotlight due to a lack of activities and interest from sponsors. 

Archery, in this regard, can be an example for smaller federations to follow. It is a relatively young federation and the sport is not a widely popular one in the country, yet the federation has managed to hog the spotlight in recent times due to its aggressive publicity matched by the performance of its athletes in the international arena. Not many sports federations in Bangladesh can boast the number of world-class achievements that archery has managed after coming into existence around two decades ago. 

The sport has given us only the second athlete to earn a qualification into the Summer Olympics and has fetched us gold and silver in events such as the World Cup, the Asia Cup and the Grand Prix. Bangladesh Archery Federation's general secretary Kazi Razibuddin Ahmed Chapol, the man credited with taking this sport from obscurity to the position of a frontrunner in sporting achievements, proudly says that their success is an example to follow for others.  

"James Easton was the one who encouraged me to start the federation and he was the one who advised me to bring educated boys and girls to this sport," Bangladesh Archery Federation's general secretary Kazi Razibuddin Ahmed Chapol recalled with admiration towards the American sports organiser.

"On different platforms, the World Archery Federation says, 'if you want rapid improvement in this sport, follow Bangladesh'. Bangladesh is regarded as a role model in archery," Chapol claimed while talking to The Daily Star. 

The sport took nascent steps, according to Chapol, when former president of World Archery, James Easton, visited Bangladesh in 2002 following a meeting with him two years earlier during the Sydney Olympic Games. 

While the initial idea was to focus on the young population of indigenous communities who have better physical ability and have some historical association with bows and arrows, the federation realised, upon insistence of Easton, that young people from all over the country, especially the ones going to schools and colleges, needed to be involved to get positive results. 

"James Easton was the one who encouraged me to start the federation and he was the one who advised me to bring educated boys and girls into this sport," Chapol recalled with admiration towards the American sports organiser. 

The talent hunt programmes were widened across the country, finding and grooming raw talents who later earned accolades in regional and global events. 

Emdadul Haque Milon, Ruman Sana, Iti Akter, Diya Siddique, Shyamoly Roy, and Ram Krishna Saha are a few names who have made Bangladesh proud on the global archery scene. There are more than 200 registered archers in the country and more than 40 teams take part in national competitions. 

Chapol, though, feels that they are focusing more on quality than quantity. 

"We stress on quality, not quantity," the veteran sports organiser said. "Going for medals [in Olympics] is one thing, building a base is another. We are working to build a strong base for archery."

While the base was built with the support and encouragement of World Archery and Archery Asia, the continuation of the process of training players round the year and taking them to international events regularly needed financial support. And that support came in the form of City Group.

The conglomerate has been with the archery federation for five years now, taking care of the federation's expenditures in organising training, national events and international assignments. A rarity in Bangladesh's sports sponsorship culture, Chapol hopes City Group's association with the federation will continue for long.

"That archery has gone to a world level has been possible due to the support of City Group," Chapol said. "Teer (bow) is the symbol of our sport and Teer is also a brand of City Group. So these two symbols aligned and created good things and will continue to create good things in future." 

What the long-term sponsorship has done, among other things, is help the federation stick to a world-class coach in Martin Frederick, who by now, has made Bangladesh his home and regards the archers as his children. 

The German has led the team to a number of successes in international arena and given proper planning and support, more success should be on the way. There have been downs alongside the ups in the sport, but the trajectory taken by Bangladesh archery over the past decade has been one on the up. 

With the base firmly in place and financial support ensured, the day shouldn't be too far off when archery's ultimate dream, that of winning a medal on the biggest platform of all -- the Olympics -- comes true.