Roman Sana has played the boys’ recurve singles many times before in international competitions. But this is the first time he has competed for a personal medal on the Olympics stage. The young man of Khulna has passed the first step of that dream journey well. In the second round, Roman’s opponent was Crispin Duenas of Canada.
Roman defeated Tom Hall of Great Britain 6-3 in the first round at the Yumenoshima Archery Ground in Tokyo today. The game rolled in five sets. However, Roman was a little scared when he played a bad shot on three arrows in the fourth set.
In the first set, Roman hit 3, 10, 10, 6 (26 points) respectively. Meanwhile, Tom also hit 3, 9, 10 (26) in the first set. In the first set, both of them shared 1 point. Although he was under pressure in the first set, Roman turned around in the second set. He hit 10, 9, and 6 (26) in the second set. And in the third set, he hit 10, 9, 6 (26). Going into the fourth set, he seemed to have lost a little bit of food. He hit 9, 6, 7 (25) in this series. But in the end, he has established himself well in the fruit settlement setting. Roman hit 9, 10, and 10 (29) respectively in this set. Tom hit 9, 9, 6 (25) in the second set. He then hit 6, 9, 9 (26) in the third set. Tom hit 10, 6, 10 (26) in the fourth set.
In the mixed event on July 23, Roman reached the knockout stage for the first time by teaming up with Dia Siddiqui. In the fight to reach the quarter-finals, the top team showed an impressive performance against South Korea. He maintained that continuity even in the elimination round of the single.
Roman, however, was ahead of Hall in terms of performance and career success. Bangladesh’s archer is ahead of Hall in the world list. The 30-year-old is the 8th in the world. The 26-year-old Roman is 25th. Hall won only one medal in his career, winning bronze at the 2016 World Cup. Roman is a little more experienced than that. Roman won gold at the 2014 Asian Grand Prix in Thailand, the 2016 International Solidarity Archery Championship in Kyrgyzstan, and the 2019 Asia Cup in the Philippines. Then in 2019, he won bronze in the world championship in the Netherlands. The memory of the latest success of last May is still fresh.
Roman did not think about the opponent at all. Martin Friedrich, the German coach of the national team who was with Roman in Tokyo, said in a WhatsApp call yesterday, ‘I have found nothing about the opponent yet. I’m not really thinking about the opponent. I’m just thinking about Roman. Now all my attention is on Roman. With tomorrow’s important match. ‘
There was also a fear of the weather in Tokyo. There were storms and rain in Tokyo yesterday. The weather forecast said that there is a possibility even today. However, there was not much wind during the Roman game. Roman passed the first round well.
Dia Siddiqui is going to the Olympics after Roman Sana
21 June 2021 was the last day of the Olympic qualifiers in Paris. The archers of Bangladesh would get a direct pass from the Tokyo Olympics if they were in the top three in the women’s singles recurve. But Dia Siddiqui got the highest success for Bangladesh in the qualifying round. Despite fighting, she lost the tie-break by 6-5 set points in the third round to Slovenia’s Anna Umer. However, even after this rate, the dream of playing in the Olympics is going to be fulfilled.
At the end of the qualifying round, the World Archery Federation gave the good news to Bangladesh. He will play in the Tokyo Olympics thanks to the International Olympic Committee’s Tripartite Commission’s ‘Invitation Place’.
Rajib Uddin, of course, gave such a hint when the Bangladesh team left Dhaka. He told a news conference “We will try to qualify to play first. However, even if we don’t have time to play in the Olympics directly, we will go to the Olympics. I will tell you that secret later. ‘
Earlier, Roman Sana had time to play in the Olympics in the boys’ recurve unit from Bangladesh. He reached the semifinals of the World Archery Championships in the Netherlands in 2019 and confirmed the Tokyo Olympics. Roman won bronze in that tournament.
Kazi Rajib Uddin, general secretary of the federation, confirmed the good news of Dia Siddiqui playing in the Olympics. “After Roman Sana, Dia also had time to play in the Tokyo Olympics. The World Archery Federation has given him an opportunity through Invitation Place.
The World Archery Federation has also considered the international performance of archers from countries like Bangladesh before giving them the opportunity to play in the Olympics in a special system (invitation place). Dia Siddiqui was well ahead. Silver won the final of the Recurve Mixed event last month in Switzerland, teaming up with World Cup Archery Stage Two Roman. He still has a great fight in the Olympic selection. Bangladesh and Dia received this.
Earlier, swimmers Ariful Islam, Junayana Ahmed, and athlete Zaheer Raihan confirmed to go to the Olympics after getting wild cards. And Abdullah Hale Baki is going to the Olympics from shooting on the special occasion of the Tripartite Commission. Mabia Akhter, a gold medalist in SA Games in weightlifting, is also likely to get a wild card.
