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Archery World Cup: Bangladesh recurve men's, women's teams eliminated
Bangladesh recurve men's and women's teams were eliminated from the pre-quarterfinals of the Archery World Cup 2021 Stage-3, a final qualification tournament of the Olympic Games, in Paris Friday.
Bangladesh recurve men's team of Ruman Shana, Hakim Ahmed Rubel and Ram Krishna Saha – conceded a 1-5 set points defeat to the US.
Also read: Asia Cup Archery: Bangladesh team earn two silver, one bronze medal
Recurve women's team of Diya Siddiqui, Nasrin Akhter and Mehnaj Akhter Monira suffered a 2-6 set points defeat against Mexico at the same venue.
Earlier, Bangladesh's celebrated archer Ruman Shana directly qualified for the Tokyo Olympics after winning the bronze medal in the recurve men's singles of the Archery World Championship in 2019.
Also read: Bangladesh win first silver in Archery World Cup
Women archer Diya Siddiqui also got a wild card to participate in the Tokyo Olympic Games.
New Zealand Win Inaugural ICC Test Championship Final
New Zealand have won the first ICC Test Championship after beating India in the final by 8 wickets on Wednesday at the Rose Bowl, Southampton. There was a reserve day for the championship match in case the rain interrupts during the play. Eventually, the match ended on the sixth day. New Zealand were superb on the final day and they were desperate to win the contest. It was a collective effort that guided New Zealand to win the most prestigious ICC tournament. This article discusses how New Zealand crowned champion after beating India in the inaugural edition of the ICC Test Championship final.
ICC Test Championship Final Match Report
Rain disrupted every day of the ICC Test Championship Final between New Zealand and India, and the game was not even held on the first day. As a result, the match lasted till the reserve day.New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson opted to bowl first in a swinging condition at the Rose Bowl ground.
The Kiwi pacers were excellent in line and length in the first innings, with neither bowler conceding more than 3 runs per over. Especially, Kyle Jamieson was outstanding in terms of accuracy. He took five wickets for 31 runs, including Rohit Sharma, Rishab Pant, and Captain Virat Kohli.
Read BAN vs AUS: How Ashraful, Shakib shocked Australia
India were bowled out for 217 after playing 92.1 overs. Ajinkya Rahane was the top scorer (47) for team India, while Virat made 44 runs.
In response, New Zealand scored 249 runs to take a crucial 32-run lead over India in the first innings. Devon Conway led the way with 54 runs, while Captain Kane Williamson chipped in with 49. Fast Bowler Mohammad Shami picked up the highest 4 wickets for India.
India had hoped to bat out the whole day on the final day but were bowled out for 170 after the drinks break in the second session. Rishab Pant scored the highest 41 runs for India, while Tim Southee claimed the most four wickets for New Zealand.
Read BAN vs Zim 2021: BCB May Use the Zimbabwe Series as an Opportunity to Find New Talents
New Zealand had nearly 50 overs to reach the 139-run winning target. Thanks to 96* runs unbeaten stand between Kane Williamson (52) and Ross Taylor (47) guided New Zealand to the victory in the third session of the sixth day. Spinner Ravi Ashwin snatched both the wickets for India. Pacer Kyle Jamieson was named player of the match after taking seven wickets in the match.
Top Performers in the Inaugural ICC Test Championship
We saw some incredible performances and unforgettable matches over the course of the two-year-long ICC Test Championship. Here we mentioned some of the top performers in the inaugural edition of the tournament.
Most Runs
Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne was the most runs scorer in the Test Championship tournament, He made 1,675 runs in 23 innings with an average of 72.82. England’s Joe Root (1,660) and Aussie middle-order batsman Steven Smith (1,341) came in second and third respectively on the list.
Read Who was The Best Captain of Bangladesh Cricket team?
Most Wickets
India’s off-spinner Ravi Ashwin had the most wickets in the tournament. He picked up 71 wickets with an average of 20.33 in 26 innings. Australia’s Pat Cummins (70) and England’s Stuart Broad (69) were among the top three wicket-takers in the tournament.
High Scores
Australia’s David Warner was the only player to score 300 runs in an innings in this tournament. His unbeaten 335* runs against Pakistan was the highest innings of the competition, followed by Zak Crawley (267) and Virat Kohli (254*).
Best Bowling Figures
Lankan bowler Lasith Embuldeniya's 7/137 wickets haul against England was the best bowling figure in an innings in the championship. Ravi Ashwin (7/145) and Jasprit Bumrah (6/27) finished second and third respectively on the list.
Read:DPL Super League: Abahani overpower Mohammedan
Bottom Line
Before winning the Test championship, New Zealand’s biggest achievement on the international stage was winning the ICC Champions Trophy in 2000. The Kiwis played two back-to-back 50-over World Cup finals in 2015 and 2019 but lost both the finals against the arch-rivals Australia and England respectively.
So, New Zealand were desperate to win a major ICC tournament prior to the ICC Test Championship Final against India, and they finally have done it. This New Zealand team is arguably the best ever in their cricket history and they deserve a lot of credit.
Read BAN vs. ZIM 2021: Individual Milestones expected to Reach
Olympic Day 2021 observed in Dhaka
The Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) Wednesday observed the Olympic Day 2021, a global programme to celebrate the 127th founding anniversary of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with a day-long program in the capital.
The BOA programme started in the morning with the hoisting of the IOC, Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and BOA flags at the BOA Bhaban.
BOA Secretary General Syed Shahed Reza hoisted the IOC flag, Vice-President Sheikh Bashir Ahmed OCA flag and BOA Deputy Secretary-General Asaduzzaman Kohinoor BOA flag.
Also read: BOA to observe Olympic Day on Wednesday
The programme also featured the seminar "Olympic Values and Ethics in Perspective of Bangladesh" at the Dutch-Bangla Auditorium at noon.
Later, the BOA Medical and Anti Doping Committee arranged an anti-doping workshop at the same venue in the afternoon.
Tokyo shapes up to be No-Fun Olympics with many rules, tests
The Tokyo Olympics, already delayed by the pandemic, are not looking like much fun: Not for athletes. Not for fans. And not for the Japanese public. They are caught between concerns about the coronavirus at a time when few are vaccinated on one side and politicians who hope to save face by holding the games and the International Olympic Committee with billions of dollars on the line on the other.
Japan is famous for running on consensus. But the decision to proceed with the Olympics — and this week to permit some fans, if only locals — has shredded it.
“We have been cornered into a situation where we cannot even stop now. We are damned if we do, and damned if we do not,” Kaori Yamaguchi, a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee and a bronze medalist in judo in 1988, wrote in a recent editorial published by the Kyodo news agency. “The IOC also seems to think that public opinion in Japan is not important.”
Support for going ahead seems to be increasing, but there’s persistent opposition with small street protests planned on Wednesday, one month before the July 23 opening. Much of that concern stems from qualms about the health risks. While the number of new cases has been receding in Tokyo, only about 7% of Japanese are fully vaccinated — and even though the government is now supercharging its vaccine drive after a slow start, the vast majority of the population still won’t be immunized when the games start.
Read:Japan’s vaccine push ahead of Olympics looks to be too late
That’s left the IOC and the Japanese government going through contortions to pulls this off. Dr. Shigeru Omi, the government’s top COVID-19 adviser, called it “abnormal” to hold the world’s biggest sports event during a pandemic. He also said the safest Olympics would be with no fans.
He was overruled on both counts by the government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and organizers.
The official cost of the Tokyo Olympics is $15.4 billion, but government audits suggest it’s twice that. All but $6.7 billion is public money. The IOC chips in only about $1.5 billion to the overall cost.
The pressure to hold the games is largely financial for the Switzerland-based IOC, a nonprofit but highly commercial body that earns 91% of its income from broadcast rights and sponsorship. Estimates suggest a cancelation could cost it $3 billion to $4 billion in broadcast rights income.
Beyond financial concerns, putting on a successful Olympics is also a major source of pride for the host country. Some economists compare it to throwing a big party. You overspend but hope your guests go away bragging about the hospitality.
“It’s a bit like a gambler who already has lost too much,” said Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University in Tokyo. “Pulling out of it now will only confirm the huge losses made, but carrying on you can still cling to the hope of winning big and taking it all back.”
Before the postponement 15 months ago, Japan was on track to host a well-run if expensive Olympics. It had a beautiful new National Stadium by architect Kengo Kuma, meticulous organization, and a grand stage for a country that mounted historic games in 1964 — just 19 years after defeat in World War II. IOC President Thomas Bach called Tokyo the “best prepared Olympics ever” — and he still says it repeatedly.
But now, worries that the games will be become an incubator for the virus hang over them. For now, the rolling averages of deaths and cases have stabilized in a country that has reported more than 14,000 deaths — good by global standards but worse than many of its Asian neighbors.
While the games may still end up wowing television audiences who will tune in around the world, the pandemic has removed any sense of celebration. Athletes are meant to stay in the village or venues. Most others entering Japan for the Olympics can only shuttle between their hotels and venues for the first 14 days, must sign a pledge of follow the rules, and could have their movements monitored by GPS.
Read:Torch relay for Tokyo Olympics kicks off its 121-day journey
There will be no public viewing areas in Tokyo. The few fans who can attend venues must wear masks, social distance, refrain from cheering, and go straight home afterward. No stopping off at the local izakaya for beer and skewers of grilled chicken.
With spectators from overseas ruled out months ago, there’s little business for hotels. Local sponsors have paid more than $3 billion to be involved, and some have complained about lost advertising possibilities. Others have expressed concern about being tied to an event that’s unpopular at home.
In perhaps a last-ditch effort to save some of the festive spirit, organizers said Tuesday they were looking into selling alcohol at the venues.
Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa indicated financial concerns were at play: Japanese brewer Asahi is one of the sponsors and has kicked millions into the local operating budget.
But after immediate pushback, organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto reversed the decision at a Wednesday news conference.
“We decided as Tokyo 2020 not to sell alcoholic beverages and to ban drinking alcoholic beverages in the venues,” she said.
And athletes who might want a drink to celebrate have been told by organizers to “drink alone” in their rooms.
Alcohol is otherwise banned in the athletes’ village.
This village will also have a fever clinic, the first stop for anyone who fails a daily test — and the last place anyone wants to go.
Read:What drives possible boycott of Beijing Olympics
“We are hoping that there won’t be so many people,” Dr. Tetsuya Miyamoto said, director of medical services for Tokyo 2020. “This is an infectious disease we are talking about. It has the possibility of spreading. So once that happens, the numbers could start to explode.”
Details of the opening ceremony are always kept a secret. But this time the questions aren’t about which celebrity will light the cauldron but rather will athletes social distance and wear masks as they march through the venue? And how many will march at all?
One of the symbols of the celebratory atmosphere of the Olympics has long been its notorious policy of handing out condoms. At the games in Rio de Janeiro, officials distributed 450,000 through vending machines with signs that read, “Celebrate with a Condom.”
This time there will be 150,000 — but only given to athletes as they leave for home.
BOA to observe Olympic Day on Wednesday
Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) will observe Olympic Day 21, a global program on the occasion of the 127th founding anniversary of International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the capital on Wednesday (June 23) .
On the occasion, the BOA, as a member of IOC, has arranged a brief program this time cancelling the traditional 'Olympic Day Run' to celebrate the day due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The day's BOA program includes hoisting of flag at Olympic Bhavan in the city at 11 am, seminar at Dutch- Bangla auditorium of BOA at 12 noon and Anti Doping Workshop at 4 pm at the same venue.
Handball Federation honour six persons with MA Hamid Awards
Bangladesh Handball Federation (BHF) honoured six handball personalities--two players, two organisers, one trainer and one referee --with "M A Hamid Honourary Awards '21" at a function at National Handball Stadium in the capital Monday evening.
Handball Federation introduced the awards, named after its founding and long serving late President Col (Retd) MA Hamid to honour the famed handball players and dedicated officials considering their performances.
Senior Secretary to the Ministry of Youth and Sports M Akhter Hossain was the chief guest at the awards distribution ceremony and handed over the awards Monday evening.
BHF General Secretary Asaduzzaman Kohinoor, Executive Director of Walton Group FM Iqbal Bin Anwar and wife of MA Hamid International Chess player Rani Hamid were also present the function, chaired BHF vice president Hasanullah Khan Rana.
Recipients of the awards are: Hosne Ara Khan, Farida Akhter Begum (Organiser), Jahanara Begum, Mong Sha Pru (Player), M Nazir Akhter (Trainer) and M Motiur Rahman (Referee).
Diya Siddiqui earns wild card to compete in Tokyo Olympics
Bangladeshi leading women's archer Diya Siddiqui got a wild card to participate in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
Bangladesh Archery Federation in a media release on Monday said, Diya Siddiqui of Bangladesh got the quota place (wild card) along with three archers of three other countries to participate in this year's Tokyo Olympics.
Diya Siddiqui is the 2nd Bangladeshi archer to participate in the Tokyo Olympics despite she eliminated from women's recurve singles quarter final of the just concluded Olympic Games final qualification and Archery World Cup' Stage-3 losing to Umer Ana of Slovenia by 5-6 set points in the breaker held in Paris on Monday.
READ: Comeback! Djokovic tops Tsitsipas at French Open for Slam 19
Earlier, Bangladeshi celebrated archer Ruman Shana directly qualified to compete in the Tokyo Olympics after winning the bronze medal in the recurve men 's singles of the Archery World Championship held in June, 2019.
Besides, athlete Jahir Raihan , swimmer Ariful Islam and Junaina Ahmed of Bangladesh earlier confirmed their participation in the Tokyo Olympics.
READ: Asia Cup Archery: Bangladesh team earn two silver, one bronze medal
Bangladesh Olympic Association is trying to include two more athletes--lifter Mabia Akhter and archer Beauty Roy in their Olympics contingent.
Comeback! Djokovic tops Tsitsipas at French Open for Slam 19
Talented and tenacious as they come, Novak Djokovic was not about to concede a thing after dropping the first two sets of the French Open final against his younger, fresher foe, Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Djokovic looked diminished and depleted at the outset Sunday. By the end, he was at his imperious best.
Aided by flawless serving down the stretch, the top-seeded Djokovic came all the way back to beat Tsitsipas 6-7 (6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 for his second championship at Roland Garros and 19th Grand Slam title overall.
“I don’t want to stop there,” said Djokovic, who spread his arms, then tapped his chest and crouched to touch the red clay at Court Philippe Chatrier after ending the match with a leaping volley.
Read:Inspired by Novotna, Krejcikova wins 1st Slam title in Paris
As things stand, Djokovic is just one major trophy away from tying the men’s record of 20 career Grand Slams shared by Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer and will get his first chance to pull even with his rivals at Wimbledon, which starts in two weeks.
Djokovic became one of only three men — alongside Rod Laver and Roy Emerson — to have won each major tournament at least twice. And now, as the reigning champion at the Australian Open and French Open, Djokovic can set his sights on another rare achievement: He is halfway to joining Laver (1962 and 1969) and Don Budge (1938) as the only men with a calendar-year Grand Slam.
The 34-year-old Djokovic eliminated 13-time French Open champion Nadal — a challenge the Serb likened to scaling Mt. Everest — in a semifinal that lasted more than four hours Friday night.
That was only Nadal’s third career loss in 108 matches at the clay-court major tournament.
Djokovic also had defeated Nadal in the 2015 quarterfinals in Paris before losing that year’s final, and it appeared as if the same fate was waiting Sunday.
That’s because Djokovic looked drained early. The 22-year-old Tsitsipas had the upper hand for two sets.
“It was not easy for me,” Djokovic said, “both physically and mentally.”
Eventually, though, he got his best-in-the-game returning on track and, remarkably, did not face even one break point over the last three sets.
That enabled Djokovic to complete his sixth career comeback from two sets down — and second of the past week.
Read:Serena Williams loses at French Open; Federer withdraws
The International Tennis Federation said Djokovic — who trailed 19-year-old Lorenzo Musetti two sets to none in the fourth round — is the first man in the professional era to win a Grand Slam tournament after twice facing a 2-0 deficit in sets.
“Suddenly just felt cold and out of it,” Tsitsipas said. “It was difficult to readjust. I felt like I kind of lost my game a little bit. I really wish I could understand why things like this happened and evolved.”
Experience could have been a factor, too.
This was the first major final for Tsitsipas and the 29th for Djokovic, who also won the French Open in 2016, to go with nine titles at the Australian Open, five at Wimbledon and three at the U.S. Open.
Of just as much, if not more, significance to the ultimate outcome: Djokovic is 35-10 in five-setters — including a men’s-record 32 wins at majors — while Tsitsipas is 5-5.
“What I learned today is that no matter what, in order for the match to be finished, you have to win three sets and not two,” said Tsitsipas, who was trying to become the first Greek to win a major singles title. “Two sets doesn’t really mean anything.”
He needed just about 100 minutes to grab his big lead on a sunny, breezy afternoon with the temperature approaching 80 degrees Fahrenheit (over 25 degrees Celsius) and attendance limited to 5,000, about a third of the stadium capacity, because of COVID-19 restrictions.
The footing on clay can be tricky, and both men took first-set tumbles.
Djokovic’s left him prone on the sideline after a head-first fall near a net post. Tsitsipas slipped by the baseline, smearing his white shirt and purple shorts with the rust-colored surface.
Read:Sponsors hail Naomi Osaka’s ‘courage’ on mental health
While Djokovic switched tops soon after his spill, Tsitsipas kept his dirty clothes on — as if he viewed the mess as a badge of honor — until after losing the third set, when he requested a visit from a trainer to help him with a tight hip.
By then, the momentum had changed. And Tsitsipas never could recover, mainly because he never made any headway in Djokovic’s service games.
The first set was tight as can be: Tsitsipas won 43 points, Djokovic 42.
Seeming surprisingly shaken, Djokovic began the second set with a double-fault and a swinging forehand volley that landed way long, then got broken with a wild forehand miss.
Tsitsipas broke again to lead 5-2 in that set, and Djokovic pressed a white towel against his face at the ensuing changeover.
Trying to cool off? Perhaps. Trying to reset himself? Probably.
After the second set, Djokovic headed off for one of each player’s two allotted locker room breaks.
The match was never quite the same; Tsitsipas thought Djokovic’s anticipation and movement improved.
“I kind of felt like he could read my game a bit better, suddenly,” Tstitsipas said. “Good for him.”
Read:Nadal beats a tired Djokovic for 10th Italian Open title
A supreme returner and imposer of his will, Djokovic accrued early breaks of serve in each of the third, fourth and fifth sets.
Shadows were spreading across the court as the sun descended in the early evening and, though Djokovic complained to chair umpire Aurélie Tourte that the artificial lights were switched on, he shined when it mattered the most.
This was another match that lasted more than four hours, and Djokovic was up to the task again.
“The atmosphere was amazing against Rafa and today against Stefanos,” Djokovic said. “I will definitely remember these last 48 hours for the rest of my life.”
Inspired by Novotna, Krejcikova wins 1st Slam title in Paris
Thinking of her late coach the whole time, Barbora Krejcikova went from unseeded to Grand Slam champion at the French Open.
Krejcikova beat 31st-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 in the final at Roland Garros on Saturday to win the title in just her fifth major tournament as a singles player.
When it ended with Pavlyuchenkova’s backhand landing long on the fourth match point for Krejcikova, a 25-year-old from the Czech Republic, they met at the net for a hug.
Then Krejcikova blew kisses, her eyes squeezed shut, in tribute to her former coach, Jana Novotna, the 1998 Wimbledon champion who died of cancer in 2017.
“Pretty much her last words were just enjoy and just try to win a Grand Slam. And, I mean, I know that, from somewhere, she’s looking after me,” Krejcikova told the crowd at Court Philippe Chatrier, limited to 5,000 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“All of this that just happened, these two weeks, is pretty much because she is just looking after me from up there,” Krejcikova said, lifting her left hand toward the sky. “It was amazing that I had a chance to meet her and that she was such an inspiration for me. I just really miss her. But I hope she’s happy right now. I’m extremely happy.”
Krejcikova is the third unseeded women’s champion since 2017 at Roland Garros. There were zero from 1968 through 2016.
Also read: Nadal matches Federer with 20th Grand Slam title; 13th at Roland Garros
She now will try to become the first woman since Mary Pierce in 2000 to win the French Open singles and doubles titles in the same year. Krejcikova and partner Katerina Siniakova already own two Grand Slam doubles titles and reached Sunday’s final of that event.
Pavlyuchenkova, a 29-year-old Russian, was playing in her first Grand Slam final in the 52nd major tournament of her career — the most appearances by a woman before reaching a title match.
“Since (I was) a little girl, I was thinking if one day I will be standing here, I was preparing a speech all the time when I was little. What I could have said. What I would say. Right now, I have no words, actually. I forgot everything that I was preparing,” said Pavlyuchenkova, who was treated for a left leg problem late in the second set.
“In the last point, I think I was dead,” she said. “I don’t have any more fuel.”
This was only the second WTA singles title for Krejcikova — and they’ve come in her past two tournaments.
She is the sixth consecutive first-time Grand Slam champion to collect the women’s championship at Roland Garros, where the red clay can frustrate players by diminishing the effectiveness of speedy serves and by creating odd bounces.
Saturday’s matchup was a fitting conclusion to two surprise-filled weeks.
Naomi Osaka withdrew to take a mental health break. No. 1 Ash Barty, the 2019 champion, retired in the second round with an injured left hip. Simona Halep, the 2018 champion, didn’t play at all because of a hurt calf. Serena Williams lost in the fourth round. Defending champion Iga Swiatek lost in the quarterfinals.
Also read: Murray out of Australian Open; Grand Slam comeback on hold
Krejcikova spoke frankly earlier in the tournament about feeling overwhelmed by stress and panic before facing 2017 U.S. Open champion and 2018 French Open runner-up Sloane Stephens in the fourth round.
Krejcikova said she worried she wouldn’t win a game and was in tears, not wanting to even play the match, before her sports psychologist talked her through it.
Good thing, too, because Krejcikova beat Stephens 6-2, 6-0. That went alongside wins over No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina and No. 24 Coco Gauff before Krejcikova saved a match point in the semifinals against No. 17 Maria Sakkari.
Some jitters were apparent in the final’s opening game, when Krejcikova double-faulted twice and got broken. But she snapped out of it right away, excelling with her crisp two-handed backhand, net skills honed in doubles and perfect defensive lobs. One curled over Pavlyuchenkova and landed right in a corner for a winner that helped Krejcikova break to 1-1 and begin a six-game run.
Pavlyuchenkova went up 5-1 in the second, before she stretched for a backhand, winced and reached for her upper left leg. During a medical timeout, a trainer taped that leg while Pavlyuchenkova was on a towel, a bag of candy within reach.
In the third set, Krejcikova nosed ahead for good at 4-3 by breaking at love with a forehand winner.
Soon enough, she was being handed the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen by 18-time major champion Martina Navratilova and gently rocking the trophy during the Czech national anthem.
Asia Cup Archery: Bangladesh team earn two silver, one bronze medal
Bangladesh Archery team clinched two silver and one bronze medal in the 2021 Asia Cup World Ranking Tournament, Stage 1, concluded at the Korean city of Gwang Ju on Friday.
Six BKSP archers took part in the five-day Asian meet under the banner of Bangladesh team.
Read: World Cup silver medalist Bangladesh Archery team return home
Sheikh Sajib and Puspita Zaman of Bangladesh clinched the silver medal of the mixed team event losing to Korean pair Kim Jongho and SO Chaewon Korean by 146-155 score in the final on the last day of the meet on Friday.
In the men's compound team, Bangladesh team comprising Sheikh Sajib, Himu Basar and Asif Mahmud also earned the silver medal losing against Choi Yonghee, Kang Donghyeon and Kim Jongho of Korea by 205-235 score in the final.
Read: Bangladesh win first silver in Archery World Cup
Besides, Prodipta Chakma and Rajani Akter of Bangladesh won a bronze medal in the recurve mixed team event.
Bangladesh team will return home Sunday.