Archer Sagor earns direct entry to Paris Olympics

Archer Sagor Islam made history by becoming the country's second archer and third athlete overall to earn direct qualification for the Olympic Games.

He secured a spot in this year's Paris Olympics when he moved into the semifinals of the men's individual recurve event in the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament in Turkey today.

The 18-year-old archer reached the final but had to settle for a silver medal when he suffered a 6-0 defeat in the final to Uzbekistan's Amirkhon Sadikov.

Earlier, he defeated Hugo Franco of Cuba 7-1 in the second semifinal to move into the coveted final.

Following the eliminations of Hakim Ahmed Rubel in the pre-quarterfinal and Ram Krishna Saha in the quarterfinals on Monday afternoon, Sagor was the last hope for Bangladesh in the event.

The teenage archer did not disappoint the countrymen on Eid Day as he confirmed a direct quota place for the Paris Olympic Games with a nerve-wracking win over Adam Le of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals.

The five-set quarterfinal game had ended in a 5-5 tie in which Sagor squandered his 5-3 lead after four sets, allowing Adam to take the match into a tiebreaker. But in the end, the Bangladeshi archer beat Adam by 10-9 points in a tiebreaker to move into the semifinals.

According to Bangladesh's German coach Martin Fredrick, the top five male archers in the individual recurve event of the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament secured quota places for the July-August Paris Olympic Games. So, by securing a spot in the semifinals, Sagor earned a direct ticket to the Paris Games.

Before Sagor, archer Ruman Sana and golfer Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman were the only other athletes from Bangladesh who earned direct qualification to the Olympics.

Interestingly, Sagor, who finished sixth in the qualification round, was nearly eliminated in the third round following two byes in the first and second rounds.

Sagor drew 5-5 with Denmark's Christian Brendstrup in the third round and the game rolled into the tiebreaker in which both archers hit nine out of ten but Sagor toppled Christian as his arrow was nearer to the centre of the target.

Sagor beat Nguyen Minh Duc of Vietnam 6-2 to move into the quarterfinals along with Ram Krishna Saha, who was also just one win away from securing a direct quota place but couldn't cross the final hurdle.

Ram Krishna, who finished fourth in the qualification round, suffered a 6-2 defeat to Le Quoc Phong of Vietnam in the quarterfinal.

Ram Krishna came into the quarterfinals after dominant wins over Jerome Ansel of Luxembourg (7-3) and Kwok Yin Chai of Hong Kong (6-4).

Rubel was the favourite against Pit Klein of Luxembourg in the pre-quarterfinals but the experienced archer started on the wrong feet and even though he fought hard he couldn't avoid a 4-6 defeat, which shattered his dream of securing a direct quota place.

However, the Bangladesh Archery Federation (BAF) is expecting a wild card for Rubel for the upcoming Olympic Games in France in July-August.

Rubel had come into the pre-quarterfinals with three straight wins over Vako Shakarashvili of Georgia (7-1) and Danish Amsyar of Malaysia (6-2) in the first two rounds before beating Nguyen Duy of Vietnam (9-7) in a tiebreaker following a 5-5 deadlock in a five-set game.