Bangladesh endured a mixed day at the Asian Games on Friday, with surfers advancing despite flat seas, the women’s hockey team earning a hard-fought draw, and athletes exiting in athletics, badminton, shooting and weightlifting.

Surfers advance on flat seas

At Aichi’s Tahara Long Beach, a lack of waves severely disrupted the surfing schedule. After Bangladesh’s Fatema Akter scored 2.92 points, the sea went completely flat, making further surfing impossible.

Organisers eventually completed the heats, but with conditions preventing a fair continuation, all 32 surfers from the eight women’s heats advanced to the second round. Fatema will face South Korea’s Su-jang today.

In the men’s event, Bangladesh’s Abdul Mannan scored 5.74 points to finish second in the fifth heat and qualify directly for the next round. He will face Thailand’s Tin Johnson today.

First point in women’s hockey

Bangladesh finally opened their points account in women’s hockey with a 3-3 draw against Kazakhstan.

Despite taking an early lead, Bangladesh were forced to settle for a share of the spoils. Arpita Pal and Airin Riya converted penalty strokes, while Kona Akter scored a field goal.

Bangladesh will face Chinese Taipei on Sunday.

Imranur misses sprint final

Bangladesh’s fastest man, Imranur Rahman, failed to reach the 100-metre final despite slightly improving his time from the heats.

The England-based sprinter clocked 10.44 seconds to finish seventh in the first semi-final at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium on Friday, placing 21st overall among the 24 semi-finalists.

Imranur had reached the semi-finals with a 10.49-second run in his heat, which ranked him 22nd overall. He also failed to better the 10.42 he clocked at the 2023 Hangzhou Games.

Thailand’s Puripol Boonson topped the semi-finals in a blistering 9.91 seconds, the only sub-10-second time, while Malaysia’s Muhammad Azeem secured the eighth and final qualifying spot in 10.25 seconds.

Badminton, shooting and weightlifting struggles

Bangladesh endured a difficult day on the badminton courts, suffering consecutive straight-set defeats.

The mixed doubles pair of Al Amin Jumar and Urmi Akter lost 2-0 to Malaysia’s Jie Tang and Yin Su, while in the men’s doubles, Zumar and Moazzem Hossain Ohidul suffered a 2-0 defeat to Japan’s Yugo Kobayashi and Takuro Hoki.

In shooting, the 10m air pistol mixed team of Shaker Ahmed and Anjila Amjad finished 19th among 21 countries with a score of 558-15x.

The weightlifting team also endured disappointment. In the women’s 57kg category, Bangladesh’s lifter finished sixth among seven competitors after lifting 75kg in the snatch and 100kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 175kg.