HAQUE MILON carries hopes for Bangladesh

HAQUE MILON carries hopes for Bangladesh Delhi – 6 October 2010   Emdadul Md HAQUE MILON is a young, true talented archer who carries some of the medal hopes for Bangladesh at the international sports level. In fact, he was just one point shy of bringing home a medal from the recent Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. He hopes to get another chance in London 2012, but the road is still long.   MILON played in the first ever mixed gender/mixed country competition at the Youth Olympic Games. He paired with Spanish archer Miriam ALARCON and played for the bronze medal against A. MOHAMED JAFFAR (SIN)/B. E. UNSAL (TUR). Both teams were tied at 5 set points a piece after regulation. Each archer shot one arrow for the shoot-off. MILON/ALARCON scored a very good 19 out of 20, but MOHAMED JAFFAR/UNSAL had a perfect 20 to take the bronze! Of course, MILON was disappointed after the match, but he kept good memories from the Youth Olympic Games saying, "It was a great experience, in fact I enjoyed a lot of new experience. It was not only my first time shooting a mixed team event, but also my first time with the Set System. I enjoyed the Olympic Village very much and I met new friends, new culture. I enjoyed the hospitality of the Singaporeans." MILON’s performance was still up for celebration when he came back home. "I received the congratulations from political persons. I hope this will help the future of archery in our country."   MILON was awarded an Olympic Solidarity scholarship to train at the FITA Middle East Archery Centre in Cairo before the Youth Olympic Games. He could spend there 28 days with a well-known Korean coach MUN Baek Woon. MILON said: "I was actually not so lucky there because the limbs of my bow got broken. Still, coach MUN found me a bow with which I could practice. We did not have time to work on big changes of technique but we corrected some little problems. I appreciated training with coach MUN. The new limbs arrived just three days before I left for Singapore. I am still shooting with them here in Delhi at the Commonwealth Games."   The experts agree that MILON is talented, but what brought him to archery in the first place? "My brother Ziaul HOQ ZIA was already into it. He got me into the team in 2007, after talking to my coach Nishit DAS, the Indian coach of Bangladesh. We had to build a nine-member team so my brother asked me to join the team. He was a scorer in the South-East Asian Archery Competition, and it was there that I saw the game and became interested. My brother asked one of the players about how we could get into the game further, and they introduced us to our coach, who is wonderful, and encouraged us to pursue the sport."   The great destiny of sports made that the two brothers HAQUE/HOC met in the second round of individual eliminations yesterday! MILON took a good lead first, but ZIA managed to tie the game in the third set. In the shoot-off both brothers were a bit nervous and MILON won it 8-6. "I had mixed feeling," MILON said. "I did not want to lose against my brother, but it was also sad to eliminate him." He got even more nervous when he played Simon TERRY (ENG) in the next round, a man who won two Olympic medals before the Bangladesh archer was even born! "That was impressive. That was the first time that I played against an archer with such an experience and lines of glory on his resume." After splitting the two sets, TERRY prevailed in the third 56-52.   The two brothers, together with Shiek SOJEB, had the team event today to try making it for the loss. MILON said before the match: "Bangladesh has keenly been looking forward to participating in Archery, and since we have already won a bronze medal in Shooting yesterday, there is tremendous pressure to perform. Inshallah (If it is God's will), we will make it past the quarterfinals." Unfortunately for the No. 6 seed Bangladesh, that did not happen as they fell in the quarterfinals against the No. 3 Malaysia. The brother ZIA HOQ said: "We still need to get more international experience. We need more financial support to take part in major events and Archery World Cup stages. So far the team has had only the possibility to go to Asian tournaments close by. I hope that with more sponsors and financial supporters of all kind, my brother or event the whole team can go to the London 2012 Olympic Games and dream for a medal there!"   The road is still long, but the brothers and the Bangladesh archery's cause is truly worth to be heard.   Indian Coach The Bangladesh story and the success they have already have at the Asian level has at least made it to the news in India. It shows as well that India is becoming a powerhouse in archery and could export his archery knowledge, like it has been doing for years in cricket and hockey. Nilankur DAS, journalist at the Hindustan Times reported that "The national archery coach of Bangladesh, Nishit DAS, is from the same club in Bengal that has produced international archers Rahul and Dola BANERJEE. DAS took charge of the team in September 2004 and the results are clear. The South Asian Federation Games at Dhaka last February saw 17-years-old Sheik SOJEB upset India’s top-ranked Jayanta TALUKDAR in the semifinals and then upstaged Tarundeep RAI by a point in the final."   " 'I had gone to Bangladesh twice before and knew what the archers needed. I incorporated discipline and regular practice in their roster and the results started to show,' said DAS, who is the younger brother of former national coach, Soumen. DAS (…) began his career at the Cherukuri Archery Academy in AP. Incidentally, compound archer Jignas CHITTIBOMMA, who is part of the Indian team here, is his find."   The two 17-years-old SOJEB and HAQUE MILON made it to the 1/8 elimination round at the Commonwealth Games, losing only to world class archers such as BANERJEE and TERRY.   Archery is getting a lot of media attention during the Commonwealth Games. The Hindustan Times coverage can be followedhere.   Didier MIEVILLE World Archery Communication   Sources: Hindustan Times Commonwealth Games News Services