Karar brings fifth gold

Karar Mizanur Rahman captured the first gold in the swimming pool for Bangladesh when the ace natant won the 200 metres breaststroke with a new SAF Games record on the seventh day of the seventh edition of the biennial regional meet here on December 24, 1995.

The 24-year-old swimmer from Kishoreganj who had earlier failed to win the expected gold in the 100 metres breaststroke despite setting a new mark during the heats somewhat established Bangladesh's traditional supremacy in the event when he clocked 2 minutes 32.05 seconds -- 1.47 seconds better than his previous mark set in Dhaka two years back -- to retain the crown in his favourite event.

Mokbil Hossain grabbed the silver finishing in 2 minutes 33.35 seconds while Vigitha Abeywardhana of Sri Lanka took the bronze clocking 2 minutes 36.82 seconds.

With Karar's gold Bangla-desh moved into the third position in the standings behind India, the undisputed monarch of the regional bonanza, and Sri Lanka. Bangladesh now have in their tally five golds, nine silvers and nineteen bronzes.

Meanwhile, as Karar, the top bet for the event, was putting a spoke in the Indian monopoly at the remote Velachery Aquatic Complex, our shooters failed to live up to their reputation in the air pistol event which they have been dominating over the years.

Although Bangladesh captured the silver in the team event, the country's ace shooter Atiquar Rahman, who had won a Commonwealth Games gold in 1990, offered a pathetic show against prolific Indian Jaspal Rana who won the gold collecting 676.1 (aggregate) points. On the other hand, Atiq, who set a new mark in the event two years back finished second.

However, Bangladesh provided some sort of resilience in the team event to claim the silver behind India. The team of Atiq, Tawfiqur Rahman and Ayub collected 1973 points against India's 1676.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS: It was the era when Dhanmondi was mugger-paradise and Lenin entertains four on his way home from office one mid-night. Loses his wallet and watch. But let’s look on the bright side, gets his name published in the report of that incident on next day’s edition of the DS. Also holds the record for being the first DS journalist to be mugged