Baki’s achievement tinged with regret

Abdullah Hel Baki fell agonisingly short of gold in the men’s 10m Air Rifle event at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, and instead had to be satisfied with a successful defence of his silver medal at the Belmont Shooting Center in Australia yesterday.

The 28-year-old, who bagged silver in the category at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014, fell just 0.3 points short of Australian Dane Sampson’s mark, who struck gold with a Commonwealth Games record 245 out of 261.6.

Having qualified for the eight-man final round with a sixth-place finish after scoring 616 in the qualification round, Baki fought toe-to-toe against the Indian and Australian shooters and even took the lead after the 20th shot.

However, the Bangladeshi lost his lead and went into the final round of the elimination stage just 0.5 points behind the 31-year-old Sampson.

The Australian paved Baki’s path to gold with a disappointing 9.3 — his lowest score of the day — on his final shot, leaving Baki needing just 10.1 points from his final shot to win a prestigious gold medal.

However, Baki — who had scored below 10 in just four of the 14 shots in the second stage of eliminations — could manage only a 9.7, thereby missing the gold medal as well as the chance to etch his name into Bangladesh’s history alongside Commonwealth Games Gold medallists Asif Hossain Khan (10m Air Rifle individual) and Atiqur Rahman and Abdus Sattar Nini (Air Pistol pair).

Although Baki had to be content with silver, his concentration captured the attention of the host nation with numerous media outlets applauding him and likening footage of his shooting to a photograph owing to his unwavering stillness.

Baki’s participation in his pet event was not a certainty after some promising performances from his junior teammates, but the experienced shooter bounced back in timely fashion in practice, pushing aside Resalatul Islam and securing a place alongside Rabbi Hasan Munna, who however failed to reach the final round after finishing 14th with a score of 607.6.

Although Baki was happy with back-to-back silver medals on the big stage, he also regretted not winning the gold due to mistakes.

“I saw his [Sampson’s] last shot, which is traditionally not followed by other competitors, and I might have taken the pressure after adopting the wrong process. I could have won the gold medal had I played my own way. But I am satisfied with what I have done,” Baki told reporters after the final round.

“I was not supposed to take part in the event but I secured my place in the team through hard work. Besides, there were strong opponents from Australia, Britain and India but I tried to make it my day by putting up my natural performance. I want to thank those who inspired me,” added the shooter from Gazipur.

Danish coach Klavs Christensen was also happy to have won the medal from the event as all of Bangladesh’s hopes in these Games lie squarely on the shoulders of the shooters.

“I’m so happy and relieved because [for the past] three to four months there has been a lot of pressure on the team because it was expected that we would win medals or a medal here. We knew we had the biggest chance in the 10m Air Rifle so it was a huge relief and obviously I’m happy now,” said Christensen, who has been working with Bangladeshi shooters since December 2016.

Although Baki shone on the range, the pistol shooters failed to impress and were ousted from the qualification round.

In the women’s 10m air pistol event, Ardina Ferdous missed the eight-shooter final round after finishing ninth with a score of 373, equal to Xin Hong Teh of Singapore, who moved into the final round as the eighth shooter by virtue of better scoring in 10-target. Ardina’s teammate Armin Asha finished 17th out of 25 shooters after scoring 359 in the same event.

Source: The Daily Star.