Para archery expands horizon for physically challenged athletes
Published February 27, 2023 at 5:05 p.m
star sports report
Aysha Akter lost one of her legs in a traffic accident in her hometown of Cumilla six years ago. After several operations and many therapy sessions, she is now not only able to move around in a wheelchair, but is also fit enough for various sporting disciplines.
A former engineering student, Aysha has found refuge and passion in sports. She may no longer have the physical ability to move freely, but her spirit is rising thanks to the work of the Center for the Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed (CRP).
Aysha, who is already a member of the Bangladesh wheelchair basketball team through the collaboration of CRP and the Bangladesh National Paralympic Committee, is now setting her sights on a new sporting ambition – to express herself and travel through para-archery, a discipline that began on Monday in Bangladesh has officially started .
“The wheelchairs we use are sports wheelchairs. These give us the feeling of flying like a bird and arouse the desire to engage in various sports activities. We have many obstacles, but sport gives us a new meaning in life,” Aysha told reporters at the Bangladesh Para Archery’s inauguration ceremony at a hotel in the capital.
Speakers at the inauguration of Para Archery Bangladesh on Monday at a hotel in the capital. Photo: star
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Speakers at the inauguration of Para Archery Bangladesh on Monday at a hotel in the capital. Photo: star
“There is a program of the ICRC under CRP that forms sports teams in different disciplines. I was a member of a wheelchair basketball team. There are other teams too. And our teams have been in other countries like India, Nepal, Thailand, and Indonesia. So I think para archery broadens the horizons for me and others,” said Aysha.
Aysha and 16 of her teammates were selected by the Bangladesh Archery Federation to form Bangladesh’s first team of para archery. They have received a three-month orientation and will soon begin their training camp in CRP, BAF senior officials said.
BAF General Secretary Kazi Razibuddin Ahmed Chapal was appointed President while former hockey player Faisal Ahsanullah was appointed Secretary General of the Bangladesh Para Archery Federation.
The inauguration program was attended by Tommy Dielen, Secretary General of World Archery Federation, Kyu-Hyung Han, Secretary General of World Archery Asia, BAF President Lt Gen Mainul Islam (retd), Minister of State for Youth and Sports, Zahid Ahsan Rassel, and Vice – President of the Bangladesh Paralympic Committee, Professor Sheikh Abdus Salam.
Chapal hoped that the discipline’s physically challenged athletes would bring credit to the country just as archery has brought fame to the country in regional and international events.