Coach Sharmin's future under cloud despite results

Despite guiding Bangladesh’s top two shooters to career-best scores at the recent ISSF World Cups in Germany and China, former shooter-turned-coach Sharmin Akter allegedly fears losing her job with the Bangladesh Shooting Sports Federation (BSSF) over testimony she gave before an enquiry committee.

Sharmin, the country’s fourth shooter to win international honours after Kazi Sahana, Lovely Chowdhury Akhi and Sabrina Sultana, took up coaching in 2023 after ending her 22-year playing career.

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Under the 2004 South Asian Games gold medallist, Rabbi Hasan Munna recorded a career-best 630.3 at July’s ISSF World Cup in China, missing the men's 10m air rifle final by just 0.6 points. Rabbi had earlier improved from 624.8 in Baku in 2022 to 628 at May’s Munich World Cup, while Robiul Islam Tomas also posted a career-best 627.8 in Munich.

Despite the steady improvement under Sharmin -- something even foreign coaches failed to achieve -- she is allegedly facing dismissal not because of performance, but because of her past testimony.

The uncertainty emerged after a new ad-hoc committee took charge last month. Sharmin is allegedly being targeted for refusing to testify against the previous ad-hoc committee during the interim government’s tenure.

2010 SA Games gold medallist Sharmin Akter Ratna, current national shooter Kamrun Nahar Koly and another shooter had brought several allegations, including sexual harassment, against former joint secretary Sajjad Hossain. After Ratna filed an FIR, the National Sports Council formed an enquiry committee before which Sharmin testified that she had not witnessed any such incident.

Allegations have since emerged that Ratna, now joint secretary of the new ad-hoc committee, is trying to remove Sharmin from her coaching role "in an act of retaliation".

"It has been a furious approach which will ultimately harm the country's shooting ahead of the Asian Games. The appointment or termination of a coach must be evaluated on the basis of performance, not fury or revenge. The BSSF officials must give up their occupancy approach for the betterment of shooting," a former national coach, requesting anonymity, told The Daily Star.

The former coach also alleged that a BSSF official compelled shooters to sign statements expressing a preference to train under foreign coaches instead of local coaches.

Another shooter, speaking on condition of anonymity, alleged that despite the Asian Games squad already being selected, special trials for the women's 10m air rifle and men's 10m air pistol were organised to make room for favoured shooters, although the originally selected athletes again finished on top.

Neither BSSF general secretary Shakif Shamim nor joint secretary Ratna responded to this correspondent's calls. It was learnt that State Minister for Youth and Sports Aminul Islam met federation officials yesterday to discuss several issues, including Sharmin's future.