Imranur’s absence paves way for home-grown sprinters

Home-grown sprinters are set to compete to be crowned the country's fastest man in the upcoming National Athletics Championships as England-based Imranur Rahman, a four-time winner of the event and also the current champion, withdrew himself from the 48th edition of the competition, scheduled for February 17-19 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.

Imranur stunned everyone in his debut appearance in the 45th National Athletics Championship in 2022 as he dethroned the previous edition's winner Mohammad Ismail to win gold while setting a new national record. He clocked 10.50 seconds, breaking the previous best timing by a Bangladeshi sprinter, set by late Mahbub Alam (10.54 sec) in December 1999. The next year, Imranur also broke the national record (10.11 sec) in 100m sprint at a championship in England.

Since then, Imranur has defended his 100m crown in the 46th and 47th championships in 2023 and 2024 respectively.

However, this time around, Imranur has kept himself away from the championship in order to avoid major injury ahead of the upcoming South Asian Games in 2025 and the Asian Games in 2026.

"Imranur was supposed to take part in the National Athletics Championships for Bangladesh Navy, who signed him in January [2025] for the next two years. However, he refrained from participating to avoid any risk of being injured as he underwent an operation some days ago," Bangladesh Navy long-jump coach and former national long-jumper Al Amin told The Daily Star yesterday.

Al Amin also informed that Imranur has been training and focusing on major tournaments like the South Asian Games and Asian Games, as per recommendations from his coach and medical team. He further mentioned that Navy, however, will continue providing the sprinter with all facilities alongside his monthly remuneration.

Imranur also withdrew himself from March's World Athletics Indoor Championships in China and the Bangladesh Athletics Federation (BAF) has decided to replace him with the best sprinter from the 48th National Athletics Championships.

The absence of Imranur, who represented the Bangladesh Army for the last three years, has made men's 100m race open for home-grown sprinters, especially for the likes of Ismail and Rakib Hossain of the Navy and Tushar of the Bangladesh Army.

"The 100m race will be very competitive as Rakib became champion by beating Ismail in Bangladesh Navy while Tushar of Army is also doing well. I think they will share the medals in 100m sprint," Al Amin added.

Despite Al Amin's optimism, there remain concerns regarding competitiveness in the 100m race as 30 teams have sent BAF entries of 400 athletes till yesterday whereas about 550 athletes from 63 teams took part in the last edition of the championship.

BAF general secretary Shah Alam is however optimistic to see some national records in the newly-installed track as they have decided to deliver cash awards of Tk 20,000 for each national record.