Bangladesh eyes Wushu gold at South Asian Games

by Naim-Ul-Karim
DHAKA, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) — Bangladesh that failed to grab a gold or silver medal in any Wushu category of 2016 South Asian Games has started a high altitude training for dozens of athletes as part of the country’s preparations for the upcoming South Asian Games.
Two Chinese masters, along with local coaches have been preparing the players in about two-month long training that began last week.
The residential training program will be concluded on Sept. 13.
Bangladesh Wushu Association in collaboration with the Chinese embassy in Dhaka organized the training in which 40 selected male and female players who won gold medals for Bangladesh in various local and foreign competitions earlier are participating.
China in December last year announced a donation of 500,000 yuan (about 75,900 U.S. dollars) for Wushu development in Bangladesh while pledging to send more Chinese Wushu trainers.
Mohammad Dulal Hossain, joint secretary of Bangladesh Wushu Association, said this training is to develop more quality players for Bangladesh to win medals in South Asian Games to be held in Kathmandu from March 9-18, 2019.
Officials say the Bangladeshi government has also supported various efforts to promote Wushu as a sport in Bangladesh specially after debacle in 2016 South Asian Games held in Guwahati, India from where Bangladesh Wushu players returned without gold or silver medals.
“This time we’ve started our preparations much earlier,” said Alamgir Shah Bhuiyan, general secretary of Bangladesh Wushu Association, an approved body of Bangladesh’s National Sports Council that has also been extending all-out support for promotion of Wushu in Bangladesh.
This special training that is being held at Bangladesh’s National Indoor Stadium in capital Dhaka‘s Mirpur has been designed to reach gold attaining target in South Asian Games, said Bhuiyan.
“We’ll try our best to bring two more Chinese masters to conduct another training course for our best players,” he said and added they will make a short list of players after this ongoing training.
“This time we will send 20-25 athletes with a very big hope of winning at least gold medals at the South Asian Games,” said the Bangladeshi Grand Master Bhuiyan who attended full-time Wushu training at the age of 13, nearly four decades ago.  Enditem