Imranur Rahman, the fastest man of Bangladesh is dreaming to win gold in the upcoming SA Games, scheduled to be held in Pakistan in January 23-31.
But the performances of the England-based Bangladeshi Imran’s performances is down word, though he became the fastest man in the 17th Summer Athletics Championship with clocking 10:64, the second lowest timing in any of the national or international level competitions.
Imran in his first time participation in Bangladesh National Athletics in won the title of fastest man with clocking 10:50, but on Friday his timing was 10:64.
Right now Imranur is far behind of the gold medal winner at the Nepal SA Games 2019 when Hassan Saaid of the Maldives, won the gold medal in the 100-meter event with timing 10.49 seconds to become the South Asian fastest man.
Sprinter Imranur returned to domestic competition after more than a year with participating in the 17th Summer Athletics on Friday. Since representing Bangladesh at the Paris Olympics in 2024, the country's record holder in the 100m sprint (10.11s in England) has been absent from the domestic scene. Injury rehabilitation forced him to miss the 48th National Athletics Championships last February.
Earlier Imranur set national record in the 100m sprint during the National Athletics Championship in Dhaka with a timing of 10.50 second. Later in March, he had a timing of 6.64 second in the 60m sprint event in the World Indoor Athletics in Belgrade, Serbia. He reached the semi-final of that competition.
But the Bangladesh’s fastest man Imranur finished 33rd in the men’s 100m race in the 22nd Commonwealth Games in Birmingham when he failed to make it through to the main heats of 100m sprint after finishing sixth with 10:46 seconds among eight participants in one of six preliminary heats.
Rahman, who advanced to the semifinal of the men’s 100-metre sprint with his best ever timing in the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games held in the Turkish city of Konya in 2022 but failed to keep up the momentum in the final.
Though after much drama, Imranur reached the final, at the end, his dream of winning a medal got crushed. He finished sixth out of eight sprinters in the final with a timing of 10.17 seconds.
Imranur, who lives in London, achieved his career-best timing of 10.01 seconds in the heat to advance the semi-final in the Islami Solidarity Games with finishing the race in 10.06 seconds.
But could not keep his timing in the World Athletics Championship when he finished third with a timing of 10.46 seconds in his heat.
The best achievement of Imarur Rahman as for Bangladesh in the international stage when the sprinter made history by winning gold in the 60-metre sprint event at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championship in Kazakhstan in 2023. In the semifinal he bettered his timing, clocking 6.61 seconds.
But he left the best for the final, clocking a career best 6.59 seconds to win the gold medal.
But representing Bangladesh at the Paris Olympics in 2024, Imranur disappointed when he saw the exit door from the preliminary round after clocking on10:73 seconds.
Imran failed to make it through to the main heats of after finishing sixth among eight participants in one of six preliminary heats he finished his race – 0.62 seconds slower than his personal best of 10.11 seconds.
And finally he finished on 10:64 in the National Summer Atheletics Championship onn Frdiay, though he won the gold. But he will have to improve a much to make his dream comes true of winning gold in the SA Games.
