Dhaka, April 6 (bdnews24.com) - Abu Abdullah Sunday broke the 17-year national record in the 100m sprint to become the fastest man, while Nazmunnahar Beauty retained her fastest woman crown, in the 33rd National Athletics Championship.
Abdullah of the Bangladesh Army not only snatched the fastest man's crown from champion Shamsuddin of the Bangladesh Air Force, but also set a new national record clocking 10.30 seconds at Bangabandhu National Stadium.
Abdullah, who joined the army in 1998, surpassed the previous record of 10.40 seconds set by Golam Ambia in 1991.
Shamsuddin, who was judged fastest man in the February Indo-Bangladesh Bangla Games, clocked 10.40 seconds to bag the silver medal while his colleague M Hafiz came third reaching the touchline on 10.50 seconds.
It was the third national fastest crown for Abdullah, who finished third in the Indo-Bangladesh Bangla Games last February.
The army man bagged the 100m-sprint gold medals in 2003 and 2005 before leaving on a UN mission to the Ivory Coast for one year in 2006.
He also bagged gold medals in the same event of the summer meets in 2002 and 2004.
"I felt very good after having regained my crown from Shamsuddin and hope to carry this success on to the South Asian Games at home," said Abdullah.
The 26 year-old athlete from Noakhali is confident that he will win a laurel for the nation in the international meet, if the concerned authorities undertake the initiative for a long-term training programme.
After losing the crown, Shamsuddin had no regrets, but promised to get back the crown in the upcoming Bangladesh Games.
"I was ahead of Abdullah from the beginning, but failed to finish correctly," said
Shamsuddin. adding that he had been in hectic tournaments recently and did not have any practice after returning home on March 27 from Indonesia.
It, however, was different for Beauty, who was crowned for the fourth time in a row, and set a new national record breaking her own previous one.
Beauty of BJMC finished on 11.60 seconds, eclipsing her previous record of 11.70 seconds in 2006.
Israt Jahan Iva, a student of BKSP, bagged a silver medal clocking 11.90 seconds while Jesmin Akter of Noakhali DSA finished third clocking 12.00 seconds.
"I have won it four times in a row, and actually have faced no challenge from others because no good athletes are coming out in the rest of the country compared with Noakhali district," said Beauty.
"How many coaches have we in the country like our Rafiqul Akter sir?" questioned the 22 year-old from Noakhali.
Former athlete Sufia Khatun agreed, saying that the athletes were out of touch with the coaches at the district-level and that's why they could not develop.
"Despite the huge participation in the meet, it is all meaningless as most of the participants don't even know how to start or how to run," said Khatun.
"I don't see any improvement in terms of standard despite the increase of the number of athletes," she added.
After the first day of the two-day meet, Bangladesh Army were in the lead with six gold, six silver and three bronze medals, followed by BKSP, who bagged three golds and one silver medal.
Bangladesh Ansar were in the third position with two gold, three silver and one bronze, while BJMC, Bangladesh Air Force, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Rifles and Noakhali DSA bagged one gold medal apiece.
Sunday's record-breaking timings were measured by stopwatch.
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