"People of this generation may not believe it, but there was a time when I started the journey from Teroghada upazila at midnight and travelled the 34 kilometres to Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna on a rickshaw van, accompanied by my grandfather," said former seven-time sprint champion Sultana Parveen Lovely.

"On the way back, I sometimes walked or ran five to 10 km as the rickshaw van pullers did not want to give me a ride because I was wearing trousers."

Lovely is one of many well-known sprinters from Khulna, once a breeding ground for the country's athletics. Athletes like Milzar Hossain, Mujibur Rahman, Farid Khan, Ruhul Amin, Nazir Ahmed Mallik, Uziar Ahmed, Nilufar Yasmin, Hamida Khatun, Nasima Akter, Juthi, Bithi and many others hailed from the southern district, but it is now all but deserted on the athletics front.

Much like Khulna, other districts such as Noakhali, Mymensingh, Kishoreganj, Munshiganj and Chattogram, which were once strong pockets of athletics, are now struggling to produce athletes. The barrenness of these once strong sources has made impoverished the country's athletics, following a rich period in the 1980s and 1990s.

After the introduction of the South Asian Games in 1984, Bangladeshi athletes had produced good performances in the first three editions up to 1987, with Shah Alam becoming the fastest man in 1985 and 1987. Then, Bimal Chandra Tarafder and Mahbub Alam became champions in the 200m and 100m sprints respectively in the 1993 and 1995 SA Games, but the officials could not carry those successes into the new generation with gold-winning sprinters facing uncertain futures.  

In the first three editions of SA Games, Bangladesh grabbed five gold, nine silver and 20 bronze medals in four years. That gold haul has not been repeated despite Bangladesh participating in 10 more Games over 32 years. The country won only three silver and seven bronze in the last three editions from 2010 to 2019.  

Bangladesh Customs, Bangladesh Police, Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation, Bangladesh Railway and Bangladesh Postal once played significant roles in nurturing track and field athletes by providing permanent jobs to successful athletes. But they have withdrawn from that function a long time ago and that has contributed to the deterioration of the country's athletics.

"It is not just the withdrawal of state-owned organisations from athletics that has stopped the progress of the country's sports, but also the lack of annual school and college competitions, district athletics championships and inter-university games which have seen a stagnation in the pipeline of athletes," said renowned coach Rafiq Ulllah Akter Milon of Noakhali.

"Saidur Rob, Edward Jacob, Shariful Islam and many others were the product of inter-university games but those are not taking place regularly while there are virtually no school competitions – which form the foundation of many countries that are winning Olympic gold medals. How can athletes emerge without grassroots competitions? It is not possible to keep country's athletics alive by holding only three national championships in a year," said Milon, who had single-handedly nurtured a lot of gold-winning athletes in the domestic circuits.

He added that the Indian government has launched a youth-based programme titled 'Khelo India' to promote potential sports and started getting rewards at the international level.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Air Force, Bangladesh Ansar & VDP and Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) have taken up the main roles to provide jobs and give athletes security, but the recent shutdown of state-owned BJMC will definitely put the country's athletics in further dismay."BJMC was the main force behind producing athletes, who later joined different service teams to win gold medals in national championships. So, the shutdown of 25 mills under BJMC is a big setback for athletics. Although the BJMC was providing temporary jobs since 2018, it was still a big support for upcoming athletes," said former sprinter Lovely, who is the regional coordinator of BJMC and had been working as the head coach of Khulna region since 2018.

"There are no specific reasons behind the emergence of good athletes in Khulna but my observation is that rookie athletes had great eagerness and determination to get into athletics, even though many faced uncertainty about putting food on the table at home. I think the additional motivation was to get a job in BJMC, through which they could easily look after their families."

The former sprinter also believed the overall standard of Bangladesh athletics is now poor despite the athletes getting better facilities compared to the ones they got.

"I think there may also be a problem with adulterated food and lack of nutrition. Besides, I have also seen that current athletes try to take performance-enhancing medicine, which is however not doping, but those supplements can't strengthen athletes like natural foods do," said Lovely. "Another culprit is the athletes' obsession with social media, as instead of allowing their bodies to rest after training, they spend time on social media, which drains their energies further.

With the production line of athletes at the districts drying up, Bangladesh Athletics Federation (BAF) in 2018 announced the Sheikh Kamal Athletics Academy to train promising athletes but the brainchild of Project President ASM Ali Kabir exists only on paper. The BAF holds only two national competitions regularly despite promising to hold divisional championships. 

However, the BAF have helped coaches, organisers and technical professionals to participate in 22 online seminars and workshops from May to October during the pandemic and they are now planning to hold junior and senior championships in November and January, apart from a plan to launch talent hunts in eight divisions for long-term training. The federation also has plans to hold two marathons next year.

"We wanted to hold divisional competitions, but the coronavirus has pulled us back. We have placed the academy proposal to the government, who is now looking for land," said BAF General Secretary Abdur Rokib Montu, adding that the country has only three athletic tracks, of which two are now damaged.

"I can produce results at international level if you give me enough money to nurse athletes because we have talented athletes and coaches, but we can't provide them equipment, proper training facilities, food supplements, job facilities and retirement benefits," said Montu. "We won't be able to take athletics forward until the government takes care of athletics and sponsors come forward for the athletes."

He said BAF is getting only Tk 19 lakh out of their estimated yearly budget of Tk 1 crore and a nominal allocation from the world athletic body for specific sectors.

Echoing Montu's sentiment, both coaches Milon and Lovely said athletics will not progress until the government pays special attention to athletics as there are no activities at grassroots level across the country.

They also said the government has to make all state-owned organisations, which were once involved in athletics, functional in the sport again and frame a policy that ensures a secured future for athletes.