Bangladesh women's compound team earned the host nation their best ever result in the Asian Archery Championship 2017 as the side comprising Roksana Akter, Bonna Akter and Susmita Banik reached the semi-final only to finish fourth in the event's concluding day at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka Thursday.
Bangladesh men’s recurve and compound teams however, found it hard against world archery leader South Korea in the quarter-final. The compound team finished sixth out of 10 teams while the recurve side finished eighth out of 19 Thursday. Both were placed ninth in the last edition in Bangkok two years ago.
Bangladesh women's recurve team had seen the exit door earlier in the event but the compound women archers were hopeful after getting to know that only seven sides would take part in the compound women's team event.
Roksana and Co started the day brightly as they defeated better-ranked Chinese Taipei 224-222 in the quarter-final to ensure a place in the top four before losing against India 228-213 in the semi-final. The Bangladesh archers showed improvement in the bronze-deciding match where they scored 217 against Iran's 229. It was Bangladesh women's best result in any Asian archery tournament.
India later went on to win the gold medal beating South Korea in the grand finale, which is the former’s only gold out of four team events. South Korea continued their sheer dominance, winning gold in the men's recurve and compound events, as well as women's recurve team event.
Bangladesh's Indian coach Nisith Das looked content with Bangladesh women's overall performance in the event, saying “lack of temperament” was the reason behind their defeat in the semi-final. He also added that Bangladesh would do better if they get opportunities to play in more international tournaments.
Meanwhile in the qualification round, Roksana was placed 13th out of 34 participants while Susmita, Bonna and Bipasa finished 21st, 26th and 34th respectively. Roksana, Susmita and Bonna played directly in the top 16 elimination round before losing against the opponents from Vietnam, Chinese Taipei and South Korea respectively.
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