Shirin Akhter of Bangla Navy extended her reign  in the 100 meters sprint when she became the fastest women of Bangladesh for successive third time while she won the gold medal in the Joyjatra Foundation 40th National Athletics Competition yesterday.  Held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium, the reigning gold medalist of the national Summer Championship, Shirin finished on 12:01 seconds to win the gold followed by her Naval compatriot Shohagi Akhter who clocked a time of 12:20 and Bursa Khatun of Bangladesh Army took 12:37 to take the bronze medal.
Shariful of Bangladesh Army won the gold in the men’s 200 meters sprint with timing 21:51 seconds. In fact Shirin bettered her previous national timing with finishing on 12.01seconds while her last year’s timing was 12:20. But the former student of Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Pratisthan (BKSP) and now the student of Rajshahi University participated in the meet as the athlete of Bangladesh Navy.
Shirin, in her reaction after maintaining her supremacy expressed her feeling to the reporters when she said, “I am very happy to earn the honour of winning the gold for third time but this time I have to work hard, because I was busy with my examination (honors second year).”
“It is really a big achievement after working hard and it was also a big challenge after participating in the Rio Olympic, but I expected Shohagi (Bangladesh Navy) will closely contest with me but she could not, I have some respect for her.”
Shirin, who ran in the Rio Olympic track in 2016 and the timing was 12:99 (electronic) said, “It is a very big experience to run in the highest meet of the world and this is the continuity of experience.”
The best timing of Shirin was in the SA Games in Guwahati, India 11:99 in the heat but her best timing was 11:84 (hand timing) in the National Championship in 2014.
The fastest woman of the country is now eagerly eyeing to win a medal in the next SA Games, while she said, “Now it is my only desire to win medal in the next SA Games and obviously, if it would gold will be great.”   Meanwhile, Shariful of Bangladesh Army, who won the bronze medal in the men’s 100 sprint, won the gold in the 200 meters sprint, as he said it was also a revenge of beating Navy’s Mesbah, while the former won gold in 100 meters. However, Sharuful won the gold timing 21:51 followed by Saiful Islam of BKSP (21:66) and Al Amin of Ansar VDP (21:70). Meanwhile, after deciding gold medal of six events on the second day, Bangladesh Army maintained their domination in the second day also when they won four more gold, two silver and as many bronze medals.