Reaching the quarterfinals of the Archery World Cup was the primary goal set by Bangladesh’s head coach, Martin Frederick. However, that target remained out of reach, as the men’s recurve team suffered a narrow first-round exit after a 5-4 set-point loss to Poland.
Bangladesh’s trio—Abdur Rahman Alif, Sagar Islam, and Ramkrishna Saha—put up a strong fight, winning the first set in a closely contested match. Poland levelled the score in the second set and took the lead by winning the third. Although Bangladesh bounced back in the fourth set, they fell short in the decider. In the fifth set, Bangladesh couldn’t score more than 25 combined points, while Poland edged them out with a score of 28. Polish archer Dawid Malicki hit the bullseye, with teammates Mateusz Medrak and Maksymilian Osuch both scoring 9s to seal the win.
There was a glimmer of hope in the compound men’s event, where debutant Himu Bachar won his opening-round match against Australia’s Joshua Mahon, 142-141. However, he was eliminated in the second round, losing 148-141 to Denmark’s Mathias Fullerton.
In the women’s individual category, Bangladeshi archer Bannya Akter also exited in the first round, falling to Mexico’s Mariana Bernal by a score of 140-135.
