Bangladesh archer Abdur Rahman Alif bagged gold medal in the recurve men's individual event of the Asia Cup-World Ranking Tournament stage-2 after beating Japanese rival Miyata Gakuto by 6-4 set points in the final at the Bukit Gombak Stadium in Singapore on Friday.听
This was also the 19-year-old archer鈥檚 maiden individual gold medal at the international stage after he won the final set by 29-26 points. 听
Alif won the first two sets by 28-27 and 29-28 points before the Japanese bounced back strongly to equalise the margin 4-4 by winning the third and fourth sets by 28-27 and 27-26 points, respectively.听
鈥楾his is my first gold in an individual event at the international stage. I am happy that for the first time, the national anthem was played for me at an international podium abroad. I am dedicating this victory to my country鈥檚 people,鈥� Alif told the media soon after his achievement.听
Alif, coached by Martin Frederick of Germany, set up his gold medal battle against Miyata earlier on Tuesday when he beat Pin An Chen of Chinese Taipei by 6-4 set points in the semi-final.听
In the quarter-final, Alif defeated Tai-Yen Liu of Chinese Taipei by 7-3 set points after a 6-4 set points win against Busthamin Muhammad Syafiq of Malaysia in the pre-quarter-finals.听
Alif, who placed seventh by scoring 662 in the ranking round, got bye in the first match of the elimination round before beating Chinese archer Alin by 6-2 set points in the next round to advance to the pre-quarters. 听
The boy from Pabna, Alif, is now looking forward to getting a direct entry to the next Olympics to be held in Los Angeles, USA, in 2028.听
鈥楴ow, my target is to directly qualify for the 2028 Olympics Games. I will give my best to do that,鈥� he said.听
However, he believes that competing at international tournaments will help the Bangladesh archery team to improve world rankings and that also can improve their chances to qualify for the Olympics in team events. 听
鈥榃e need to play more tournaments to improve our team rankings, and that will help [Bangladesh] qualify for the Olympics in team events,鈥� expressed Alif. 听
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