Urmi Akhter of Bangladesh reached the women’s singles pre-quarterfinal of the women’s singles in the Yonex-Sunrise Bangladesh International Challenge Badminton Tournament beating her Malaysian rival Maisha by 2-1 sets on the 2nd day of the meet at Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday.

Urmi, who won the bronze medal in the just concluded 13th SA Games in Nepal, went down in the race losing the first set by 13-21 points, but strongly returned to the match by winning the 2nd set by 21-17 points and snatched victory beating her rival by 25-23 points in the match-deciding 3rd and final sets, after making tie on two occasions.

Earlier on Tuesday, Urmi qualified for the final round as she got walkover against her Thai opponent Atitaye Provanon, who withdrew her name from the meet.

Gourab Singha, who reached the 2nd round of the meet beating Hossain Jayan of Maldives by 2-1 sets on Tuesday, miserably eliminated from the meet on Wednesday , after suffering a humiliating 7-21, 6-21 points defeat against Adil Ali Sadikin of Malaysia.

Famed shutters Elina Sultana, who advance to the final round beating Rashed Masha of the Maldives by straight 2-0 sets, made her early exit from the meet, losing to Malvica of India by 7-21, 10-21 points on Wednesday.  

In the mixed doubles, Bangladesh pair Gourab Singh and Urmi Akhter were also eliminated from the meet losing to Thai partners by 12-21, 13-21 points while another Bangladesh pair Al Amin Jumma and Dulali Halder made their early exit losing to another Thai partners by 14-21 and 8-21 points.

Defending Champions Saif Sporting Club and Bangladesh Police have shared the top slot in the Walton Refrigerator Premier Division Chess Leaque’2019 securing 8 points each after 4th round matches at the Chess Federation hall room here on Tuesday.

Bangladesh Navy and Uttara Central Chess Club are sharing the 2nd slot securing 6 points each.

In the day’s 4th round matches, Saif SC beat Bangladesh Navy by 4-0 points while Bangladesh Police beat Titas Club by 3-1 game points.

GM Kovalev Vladislav, GM Eltaj Safarli, GM Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib and GM Ziaur Rahman of Saif SC beat their opponents IM Mohammad Minhaz Uddin, FM Sheikh Nasir Ahmed, FM Khandaker Aminul Islam and IM Abu Sufian Shakil of Bangladesh Navy respectively.

GM Jobava Baadu, GM Mikheil Mehedlishvili and IM Mohammad Fahad Rahman of Bangladesh Police beat CM Sohel Chowdhury, IM Rakesh Kumar Jena and CM Saiful Islam Chowdhury respectively while GM Niaz Murshed of Bangladesh Police lost to IM Akshat Kamparia of Titas Club.

Uttara Central Chess Club beat Sonargaon Chess Club by 3-1 points.

GM Lugovskoy Maxim and IM Khusenkhojaev Muhammad of Uttara Central Chess Club beat FM Eunus Hasan and CM Ikramul Haq Siam of Sonargaon Chess Club respectively while Nepalese chess players of Sonargaon Ches Club Prakash Chandra and Sonkalan Bharati drew with Tahsin Tajwar Zia and Anata Choudhury of Uttara Central Chess Club respectively.

Among others, Bangladesh Biman beat Access Chess Club by 2.5-1.5 points, Janata Bank Officer Welfare Society beat Sultana Kamal Smrity Pathagar by 3.5-0.5 points, Sheikh Russel Chess Club drew with Sonali Bank Sports and Recreation Club by 2-2 points.

The 5th round matches will be held on Wednesday at 3 pm at same venue.

Gourab Singha reached the 2nd round of the men’s singles beating Hossain Jayan of Maldives by 20-22, 21-13, 21-11 points in the 19-nation Yonex-Sunrise Bangladesh International Challenge Badminton that began at Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday.

State Minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Ahsan Russell inaugurated the six-day meet as chief guest this morning.

Famed shutters Elina Sultana and Urmi Akter qualified for the women’s final round of the meet.

Elina beat Rashed Masha of Maldives by 21-7, 21-3 points in the qualifying round while Urmi got walkover as her Thai opponent Atitaye Provanon withdrew her name from the meet.

BKSP routed Bangladesh Police by 8-1 goals in the ongoing Walton Refrigerator Victory Day Hockey Tournament at the Maulana Bhasaani National Hockey Stadium here on Tuesday.

Debashish Roy struck two goals in the 13th and 21st minutes, Rakibul Hasan also scored twice in the 33rd and 53rd minutes while Shahedur Rahman netted one in the 27th minute, Jahid Hossain in the 38th minute, Obaeedul Hossain in 43rd minute and Amirul Islam in the 55th minute for BKSP.

Jahid Hossain scored the consolation goal for Bangladesh Police in the 23rd minute.

In the day’s other match, a brilliant hattrick by Mahbub Hossain enabled Sonali Bank to pile their 2nd win beating Bangladesh Air Force by 6-3 goals at the same venue.

Mahbub Hossain made the hattrick scoring four goals at 1st, 21st, 48th and 51st minutes, Rajib Das and Prince Lal netted one goal each in the 29th and 46th minutes respectively for bankers team.

Sajib Hossain netted twice in the 7th and 28th minutes while Raju Ahmed scored one in the 52nd minute.

Thursday’s matches: Navy vs Air Force (1 pm) and Army vs BKSP (3 pm).

Bangladesh Archery team, which earned a rare feat of bagging all the 10 gold medals in archery of the seven-nation 13th South Asian Games in Nepal, will be accorded a grand reception at the airport on Wednesday evening.

State Minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Ahsan Russell MP will be present at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to receive the Bangladeshi heroes upon their return from Nepalese capital Kathmandu.
    
Bangladeshi archers made a history clinching 10 gold medals in all the 10 archery events of the regional meet held in the Nepalese tourist town of Pokhara.   

Archer Eti Khatun emerged as the first Bangladesh women’s athlete to earn three gold medals in a single edition of the SA Games (previously known as SAF Games) by clinching two gold medals in team event and one in the singles of recurve division.

Country’s celebrated archer Mohammad Ruman Shana, who qualified for the Tokyo Olympics’2020 directly, emerged as the 2nd Bangladeshi athlete securing three recurve gold medals in a single edition of the games after swimmer Mosharraf Hossain Khan who bagged five gold medals in the 2nd SAF Games in Dhaka in 1985.

Ruman Shana clinched gold medals in the men’s recurve singles, men’s recurve team and mixed recurve team.

In the compound division, archer Sohel Rana also bagged three gold medals in the games archery clinching the gold medal in singles, men’s team and mixed team.  
 
Suma Biswas earned the women’s compound singles gold in addition to sharing team event’s gold.   

Bangladesh finished 5th in the SA Games bagging 19 gold, 32 sliver and 87 bronze medals.

Apart from the archery, Bangladesh secured gold medals in men’s cricket, women’s cricket, karate, weightlifting, fencing and taekwondo.