Bangladesh’s Ruman Shana into final at Asia Cup event in the Philippines
Ruman Shana will collect another major medal this season, following up on his bronze at the Hyundai World Archery Championships in ’s-Hertogenbosch earlier this summer.
The 24-year-old archer from Bangladesh will shoot for recurve men’s gold against Shi Zhenqi of China at the third leg of the 2019 Asia Cup in the Philippines.
“I’m very happy with my shooting and that I’m going to the final. It’s very important that I continue to perform at a high level,” said Ruman. “Before leaving, we had a press conference in Bangladesh and I said my goal was to make the semifinal and my goal now is done. Let’s see what happens in the final.”
Shana qualified second at the tournament and comfortably made his way through the bracket.
Top seed Khairul Anuar Mohamad was upset by his Malaysian teammate Haziq Kamaruddin in a shoot-off in the quarterfinals. Haziq was then subsequently beaten by Shi in the semis.
As well as the individual final, Shana will also shoot for recurve men’s team gold and mixed team bronze. Bangladesh is guaranteed to leave the Philippines with at least two silvers and could podium three times.
It’s another encouraging result for a squad that has already made history in 2019.
Ruman’s bronze in ’s-Hertogenbosch was the first world championship medal in history for an archer from Bangladesh. It also qualified the country its first quota place at the Olympic Games. (Previous participants received universality invitations.)
“It is a great opportunity for our country. I’m proud of myself and I would like to get a medal at the Olympics. I’m working hard with my coach. The Bangladesh archery team is getting better and better,” said Ruman.
The medal matches at the Asia Cup leg in the Philippines will take place over Friday 13 and Saturday 14 September.
China’s Zhang Xinyan, the top seed, will take on teammate Cao Hui in the recurve women’s final.
Both compound title matches see an archer from Malaysia challenge a representative of the hosts. Iman Aisyah Norazam will face Rachelle Anne de la Cruz in the women’s final and Juwaidi Mazuki will contest men’s gold with Paul Marton de la Cruz.
Juwaidi won the previous leg of the Asia Cup in Taipei while Paul Marton won this event in 2018.
Archers from Philippines and Malaysia are among those that will compete in a regional multisport event being held later this year in the Philippines.
“Now we’re preparing for the coming Southeast Asian Games which is this December. This is the test event,” said Rachelle Anne. “We’re just preparing and training for our main goal, which is the SEA Games.”
The Southeast Asian Games are held every two years. Archery has been on the programme at each edition since 1977 with the exception of 1997. The archery competitions at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games is scheduled to take place on 5-9 December at the same venue as this Asia Cup tournament.
The third leg of the 2019 Asia Cup takes place on 8-15 September in Clark City, Philippines.
