Gymnast Rafil narrowly misses bronze

Gymnast Rafil Ahmed stood tall in an individual event of 2023 Asian Artistics Gymnastics Championships but narrowly missed the bronze medals in the final of vault junior event in Singapore on Monday. 

Rafil, a student from BKSP, made 13.650 to finish third along with Altynkhan Temirbek of Kazakhstan and lost the bronze medal in tiebreakers. 

Interestingly, Rafil scored better in the qualification of vault event than the final round and a repeat of his qualification performance of 13.850 could have provided him a gold medal in the junior section of the championships. 

"He did perform really well except his landing. If he could land perfectly, he could have won the gold medal but he has to be satisfied with a fourth-place finish in his maiden international tournament," said manager Habibur Rahman Jamil over the phone from Singapore.

Chencheng Wang of China and Jahrel Eldrew bagged gold and silver medal respecrtvely after scoring the equal 13.775 points and their positions were decided by the tiebreaker system. 

The 17-year-old gymnast, who skipped SSC examination to participate in the ongoing Asian Championship, however could not perform well in other events like vault event as he made 9.650 in Floor, 6.700 in Pomel Horse, 9.750 in Rings, 11.750 in Parallel Bars and 8.550 in High.

Apart from Rafil, Mongching Pro Tripura, Penthoi Mro and Rajib Chakma also took part in the championships but none of them shone like Rafil. 

Bangladesh were among the best three reserved teams after the top-eight nations in the all around team event. The men in red and green scored 195.640 to finish just behind India, who scored 202.950.