Abdur Rahman Alif won the gold medal in the men's recurve individual event of Asia Cup Archery Stage-2 outplaying Japanese archer Miyata Gakuto 6-4 in the gold-deciding match in Singapore on Friday.
Asif, after winning the first two sets by 28-27 and 29-28 took the elad. But his closes contender Japanese archer bounced back strongly to level the set points at 4-4 by winning successive third and fourth sets by 28-27 and 27-26. The final headed to the fifth and deciding set and the former Bangladesh national champion, kept his cool to win the decider by 29-26 to claim his maiden international individual medal with the gold.
According to a video message from Bangladesh Archery Federation, Asif, after winning the gold, in his immediate reaction said, “It’s great, feeling excellent, because it first time I have able to hear the national anthem in the foreign soil after winning the first gold in international competition.”
About his next mission Asif said that now his target is only to win medal in Olympics and will prepare himself to reach the goal under the coach.
Asif requested the federation to organise more competitions to prepare them for the big occasions - “Participation in more competitions are essential to improve team's and individual skills. If the federation organise more competition for the team, we would have opportunity to play more games and our chance to qualify in the Olympics would be brighten."
