Mossammat Selina, a roadside tea-stall vendor and widowed mother of four, allowed his youngest son to toy with arrows and bows more than a decade ago, and that indulgence paved the way for Sagor Islam to become only the second Bangladeshi archer to directly qualify for the Olympic Games.
Before Sagor, archer Ruman Shana (Tokyo Olympics 2020) and golfer Siddikur Rahman (Rio Olympics 2016) were the only other athletes from Bangladesh who earned direct qualification to the Olympics.
Sagor confirmed a spot in this year鈥檚 Paris Olympics when he moved into the semi-finals of the men鈥檚 individual recurve event in the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament in Antalya, Turkey, on June 17.
The 18-year-old archer reached the final but had to settle for silver when he suffered a 0-6 defeat in the final to Uzbekistan鈥檚 Amirkhon Sadikov.
Earlier, he defeated Hugo Franco of Cuba 7-1 in the second semi-final to move into the coveted final.
Sagor started on a good note by finishing sixth in the ranking-round and got bye in the first and second rounds of the elimination stage.
He confirmed a direct quota place for the Paris Olympics with a nerve-wracking win over Li Adam of the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals.
The five-set quarter-final had ended in a 5-5 tie in which Sagor squandered his 5-3 lead after four sets, allowing Adam to take the match into tie-breaker.
But in the end, Sagor held his nerve to beat Adam by 10-9 points in tie-breaker to move into the semis.
Bangladesh have never won a medal in Olympics since their first appearance in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
Sagor, an 11th grade student of Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan, is now fully focused to utilise the opportunity in the Paris Games, scheduled to be held from July 26 to August 11.
鈥業 struggled a lot and had a lot of practice. There were many sacrifices made over the last six months. Now I鈥檓 entirely focused on preparation in order to make this opportunity in Paris count,鈥� Sagor told 抖阴精品 on Thursday.聽聽
Sagor lost his father, Shah Alam, an automobile mechanic and driver, when he was three years old, and his mother has since managed a tea stall near the Bangabandhu College in Rajshahi to support the five-member family鈥檚 living.
Despite the hardship, the 47-year-old Selina permitted Sagor to play the game at the SB Archery Club in Rajshahi from an early age.
He then got admitted to the BKSP as a seventh grade student in 2019 and began competing in World Archery tournaments since March 2022.
鈥業 lost my father at the age of three. Since then, my mother runs a roadside tea-stall to manage the basics of our family. We don鈥檛 even have an ancestral home. But despite all the difficulties, she provided me the chance to play archery,鈥� said an emotional Sagor.
鈥楳y mother has been my greatest inspiration. She always asks me to enjoy the game and not lose focus, which motivates me even most. For me, now is the moment to focus on training because I have the opportunity to make her happy.鈥�
So far, Sagor has taken part in 15 competitions under World Archery, and the silver in Turkey was his maiden success.