Bangladesh archery team's head coach Frederick Martin has said he doesn't want to look back, instead he wants to look ahead with the players that they have, to build a good foundation for the future.

Bangladesh has seen an exodus of top archers over the last couple of years, most of them blaming the poor financial future in the sport as well as poor treatment from the federation.

Following the departure of Olympians Ruman Sana and Diya Siddiquee – both top recrurve archers -- recurve archer Hakim Ahmed Rubel went to America in search of bread and butter last year. This has created a lack of talent at the top of the sport, which was once regarded as the most promising discipline in the country.

Reflecting on the situation at a press briefing on Saturday, organsied to announce the departure of a five-player team for World Cup Archery (Stage 2) in Shanghai, Frederick said: "Of course we have to face the drop-outs. I'm not looking back. I have to look forward. I cannot change the situation. We work with that."

Informing that the country's top compound archer Mohammad Ashikuzzaman is also walking away from the sport due to his job's demands, Frederick said he wants to groom new talents.

"Of course they (the new ones) are very young and may be they are not stable. But we have to work with that and see how we can make our organisation stronger, etc, etc, and boost our pipeline in future to achieve what we want," said Frederick, who has been in charge of the national team for the last seven years.

The five players who will leave for Shanghai today are: Abdur Rahman Alif, Sagor Islam and Ramkrishna Saha in recurve division alongside Himu Bachhar and Bonna Akter in compound division.

Replying to a query regarding only five players taking part, Frederick said they want to send players who have quality and can compete for medals. He, however, said that the realistic target from this competition, which runs from May 6 to 11, will be to see players move into quarterfinals.

"We want to climb the world ranking. But if you ask more specifics, for me it would be very good if we move into the quarterfinals. Quarterfinals is a good position under top 10 and it opens door for the podium," the German coach added.