The Bangladesh Olympic Association will begin the first phase of its specialised training programme on January 10 with 26 athletes from four disciplines – shooting, boxing, archery and taekwondo – taking part to prepare for upcoming international events.
The BOA is also planning to start the second phase in the first week of February, with athletes from another eight disciplines – swimming, athletics, cycling, gymnastics, wrestling, table tennis, badminton and weightlifting – added to the programme ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
Bangladesh will participate in 10 of the 18 disciplines to be contested at the 20th Commonwealth Games, scheduled to begin on July 23 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Archery and taekwondo are not Commonwealth Games events, but the athletes in those sports will be preparing for the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea in September.
The BOA plans to form a contingent of 40 to 50 athletes and officials, with the Commonwealth committee bearing most of the expenses.
The Commonwealth has already provided approximately US $100,000 towards preparation.
The BOA now plans to give financial assistance to eight federations to start their training camps.
‘We will give all kinds of support to the federations to start their preparation camps, but we also have a financial crisis so we requested the government to support us. The National Sports Council has yet to give any positive response,’ said BOA secretary general Shahed Reza.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Swimming Federation will organise its own preparation camp for swimmers from January 10 at its own expense, according to BSF general secretary Rafiz Uddin.
‘Initially we selected six swimmers – Mahfizur Rahman Sagor of Bangladesh Navy, Shahjahan Ali Rony of Bangladesh Army, Arifur Islam of BKSP, Mahfuza Khatun Shila and Nazma Khatun of Bangladesh Navy, and Mariam Khatun of Bagura district – for the upcoming programme,’ said Rafiz.
‘We have a vision that we will bring those six swimmers under a long-term training programme, because in the coming days there are many international meets, like the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games and the South Asian Games.
‘We are trying to manage a sponsor to run the programme smoothly. If we manage to get a sponsor maybe we will increase the number of swimmers,’ he added.
-With New Age input
