The sight of hundreds of men and women brandishing bows and arrows made the Paltan Ground and the adjacent hockey stadium look like an ancient battlefield, but in reality, the archers had gathered for competition in the Bangladesh Games.
Kaniz Fatema Nipa, the young archer who won the individual gold in a recent warm-up tourney, is excited about the sports prospects for expansion. “Archery, though a new sport, has already stirred the sports arena, it is interesting and we have the confidence that we can move ahead,” she said.
Ashiqul Islam of Bangladesh Army, has similar feelings. “I firmly believe that Bangladesh can flourish in the international arena and we have the capabilities, we just need some systematic training” said Ashiq.
Formed in 2001, The Bangladesh Archery Association (BAA) received the affiliation of the Asian Archery Federation in 2002. The biggest moment of the federation arrived in July 2003 when Federation Internationale de Tir a'l' Arc FITA or International Archery Federation recognized BAA as an affiliate body.
BAF till date, has sent its archers to Asian Archery Championship (Yangon, Myanmar, 2003), Asian Archery Championship (Delhi, 2005), X South Asian Games (Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2006), 11 Commonwealth Archery Championship (Jamshed Pur, India, 2006), Asian Archery Grand Prix (Bangkok, Thailand, 2007), 1 Asian Archery Grand Prix (Bangkok, Thailand, 2009), 11 Asian Archery Grand Prix (Tehran, Iran, 2009), IV Asian Archery Grand Prix Championship (Kolkata, India, 2009). Bangladesh won two silvers in SA Games held in Dhaka 2010.
Kazi Rajivuddin Ahmed Chapal, the founder general secretary of the federation, sees a bright future for archery in Bangladesh. “Our next missions are the World Archery and Asian Youth Championships, billed to be held in September and October at Turkey and China respectively. We are proud to say that the numbers of archers has increased to 292, after out countrywide talent hunt program, where we have found some exciting talents and look forward to mark Bangladesh’s name in the international arena,” said Chapal.
Two of the federation’s major accomplishments have been inserted the sport as a regular subject at BKSP and introducing bamboo bows for budding archers.
Among Bangladesh’s archery successes are Emdadul Haq Milon capturing a 70m recurve bow gold medal on November 19, 2009, at the Asian Youth Olympic Continental Qualifying Test in Bali, Indonesia.
Another Bangladeshi archer, Mohammad Sajjad Hossain, won the gold medal at the Archery Grand Prix Championship, beating world class archer T Ranjpar in Kolkata, also in 2009.
