Shahed hopeful with athletes in Bangladesh's two upcoming Games

Dhaka, 17 July - General Secretary of Bangladesh Olympic Association Syed Shahed Reza expressed his hope that the athletes would give their best effort to represent the country and able to bring its fame in Bangladesh's two upcoming games.

The BOA will send a 50-member contingent including 30 athletes to the July 28 to August 8 at 22nd Birmingham Games. Chef de mission Abdur Rokib Montu will lead the Bangladesh contingent.

After the Commonwealth Games an 84-member Bangladesh contingent including 58 athletes, led by chef de mission Dr Sirajuddin Mohammad Alamgir, will represent the fifth Islamic Solidarity Games scheduled to be held from August 9-19 in Konya, Turkey.

South Asian (SA) Games gold winner weightlifter Mabia Akter will carry the Bangladesh's national flag during the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games which will be held at Alexender Stadium while 13th SA Games fencing gold medal winner Fatema Mujib will carry the Bangladesh's national flag of solidarity games on August 9 at Metropolitan Municipality Stadium.
 
The participating athletes and officials will start to leave for Birmingham from July 20 in phases and they will return home from August 5.

Bangladesh will compete in seven disciplines -- athletics, boxing, gymnastics, swimming, weightlifting, wrestling, and table tennis-- of
Commonwealth Games.

The BOA's secretary general disclosed it at a press conference held Sunday at BOA auditorium.

Shahed said despite the declining incidence of the coronavirus, all players and officials traveling to Birmingham must undergo RT-PCR COVID tests within 72 hours of arriving in Birmingham to participate in the post-epidemic health alert games. Corona will be tested again before entering the Games Village.
Once the corona is negative, a player or official will be allowed to enter the Games Village or participate in the competition.

Participating athletes began training on January 1 last for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, with preparations ramping up from early March.

Bangladesh has, so far, won a total of eight medals including two gold, two silver and four bronze in the Commonwealth Games. The BOA secretary general said due to absence of shooting and archery disciplines in the Birmingham Games, the chances of winning a medal for Bangladesh would decrease slightly.

"Shooting at the Commonwealth Games has always been a success for Bangladesh. Bangladesh's success rate may be reduced due to lack of shooting discipline this time, but we are optimistic with the other athletes," he said.

Shahed hoped that the athletes would give their best to represent Bangladesh on the world stage and able to bring fame to the country.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh will compete in 11 disciplines in the Islamic
Solidarity Games. The disciplines are athletics, archery, fencing,
gymnastics, handball, karate, shooting, swimming, table tennis, wrestling and weightlifting.

Athletes have been preparing for the Solidarity Games for more than three months with focus has been increased on their training this time.

The BOA secretary general said they are expecting successes from athletics and archery in solidarity games.

The BOA sincerely thanked the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the National Sports Council and the concerned federations for their sincere cooperation and also thanked to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her personal inquiries and best wishes to the Bangladesh teams.

BOA vice-presidents Sheikh Bashir Ahmed Mamun and Lieutenant General (retd) Moinul Islam, Islamic Solidarity Games chef de mission Dr Sirajuddin Mohammad Alamgir and BOA's treasurer AK Sarkar were also present in the press conference.