Diya, Rubel win first-ever silver medal for Bangladesh in Asian Archery

Bangladesh clinched the first-ever silver medal in the Teer 22nd Asian Archery Championships in recurve mixed team event on the final day at the Bangladesh Army Stadium in Banani here on Friday.

The Bangladeshi mixed pair comprising talented Diya Siddiqui and Hakim Ahmed Rubel lost to mighty Korean partner Lee Seungyun and Royoo Su Sung by 1-5  sets in the event's final to remain satisfied with silver.

It’s a big achievement for Bangladesh to win the silver medal in the prestigious Asian meet after surpassing giant India.

Earlier on Tuesday, Rubel-Diya pair reached a qualifying landmark for the final of an Asian event for the first time eliminating mighty rivals India by 5-4 sets in the tiebreaker in the nerve-shattering semi-final.

Bangladesh earlier opened the account in the medal table of the Asian Archery by clinching two bronze medals in the recurve men's and women's team events.

The German Coach of Bangladesh  Martin Frederick expressed his satisfaction over the archers’ performance in the day.

He said: “I am happy with their performance, they played well, we failed to win the gold, but we have won silver in a big stage of the final, they’ll need  more time to perform here although they shot a very good arrow in the last set.”

Diya in her reaction after the match said: "We played well in the whole tournament and also tried our best to play well in the final, but, they (Korea) actually shoot arrows in the same sequence to win,  We have to improve our confidence in that level.”

Rubel said "We have a lot to learn from this defeat …we have found out our mistakes in the championship and we’ll try to correct those mistakes in the future ”