9th SAF Games, Islamabad 2004
Radiant Rubel
Sports Reporter
Rubel Rana became the pride of Bang-ladesh swimming when the Kushtia natant captured gold in the men's 100m backstroke of the 9th South Asian Federation (SAF) Games at the Pakistan Sports Complex Swimming Pool yesterday.The 21-year-old Rubel swam to gold clocking 1:02.78 ahead of India's Dipes Bairagi, who finished with 1:03.43. Pakistan's Faiz Muhammad picked up the bronze clocking 1:04.82. Rubel joined the gold-winning class of shooters Asif Hossain Khan and Sharmin Akher on the final day of the men's swimming competition. Rubel, who had earlier won silver in the 100m individual medley, saved the blushes of Bangladesh when his illustrious compatriot Karar Samedul was an utter disappointment. "I used to tell my teammates that I would not leave Pakistan without a gold and thanks to the Almighty Allah I finally got it," the elated swimmer told the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) afterwards. The success of Rubel later inspired Jewel Ahmed to clinch silver in the men's 100m butterfly. He clocked 57.90 sec behind Sri Lanka's Conrad Anthony Francis, who set a new SAF Games record with a timing of 56.35 seconds. Francis broke the previous record of 58.43 set by his compatriot Suresh Kumar in 1995. Jewel also helped Bangladesh to earn the second silver on the day in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay with a timing of 3 minutes 44.84 seconds. India won the gold clocking 3 minutes 39.40 seconds while Sri Lanka bagged bronze. Bangladesh's other medal came in the weightlifting competition when Bidyut Kumar secured bronze in the 94kg category with a total lift of 275kg at the Community centre. But Bangladesh's hopes of a bronze in volleyball ended with a 3-2 defeat against Sri Lanka at the Liaquat Gymnasium, where later India beat Pakistan by the same margin to win the gold. Bangladesh remained a distant fourth in the medals table by the end of Day Five. They have collected 29 medals (G=3, S=11,B=15). India dominate the table with 57 gold, 23 silver and 15 bronze medals. Pakistan occupy second place with 22 gold, 33 silver and 23 bronze medals. Sri Lanka are third having seven golds, 18 silver and 27 bronze medals respectively. Three other participants -- newcomers Afghanistan, Bhutan and the Maldives -- are yet strike gold in the competition.
| 
