Olympic champion Duplantis improved his own record of 6.21m that he set in winning the world title outdoors in Oregon last year.

Following decades in doldrums, Bangladesh athletics have found a beacon of hope in Imranur Rahman, who stormed to a stunning 60m gold medal at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Kazakhstan recently. The 29-year-old had already won back-to-back titles in 100m sprint in national athletics and is promising to revive some of the glory days of the sport in the country. In a freewheeling interview with The Daily Star’s Atique Anam, the Sheffield-based sprinter talked about his momentous victory, his ambitions, idols, sacrifices and a lot more. Here are the excerpts of the interview.

Replying to a question about his sporting idols, Imranur said: “My sporting idol outside of athletics is boxer Mohammad Ali,"

For too long the country’s athletics had failed to live up to its celebrated past at the international stage. While the Bangladeshi sprinters -- the likes of Shah Alam, Bimal Chandra Tarafder, MahbubAlam -- contributed to five golds out of the overall eight medals in athletics from 1984 to 2019 at the regional multi-sports extravaganza in the form of South Asian Games, it has been 17 frustrating years since Mahfizur Rahman Mithu won a gold medal in 110m hurdles in the 2006 Colombo edition.  

Around 4000 athletes will compete in 193 events at 24 venues across Dhaka in the final phase of the Sheikh Kamal 2nd Bangladesh Youth Games, which will get underway at the Army Stadium on February 26, organisers at a press conference informed yesterday.

The England-based sprinter said he wants to inspire the next generation to come into athletics

The Bangladesh Athletics Federation (BAF) is seeking further assistance for England-based sprinter Imranur Rahman to help him flourish after the 29-year-old sprinter created history by becoming the first Bangladeshi to win a gold medal in the 60m sprint at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championship in Kazakhstan last Saturday.

The 29-year-old sprinter clocked his best timing, of 6.59 seconds, in the 60-metre event to win the gold medal in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. 

England-based Bangladeshi sprinter Imranur Rahman created history on Saturday by becoming the first Bangladeshi to win a gold medal at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championship.

The 29-year-old sprinter clocked his best timing of 6.59 seconds to win the gold medal in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan last night.

Polish Sports Minister Kamil Bortniczuk on Thursday said he expected several dozen nations to come out against the inclusion of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Although the Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) was hopeful of organising the Sheikh Kamal 2nd Bangladesh Youth Games in a more cohesive way than the inaugural edition, age-old problems bubbled to the fore as the first phase, featuring 495 upazillas, began.

With the nation’s once glorious athletics scene in dire straits in terms of success on the international stage due to a lack of quality athletes,

Imran Rahman and Sumaiya Dewan won the 200m sprint titles as the Bangabandhu 46th National Athletics Championship came to an end at the Bangladesh Army Stadium on Sunday.

World champion American hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis won the World Athlete of the year awards on Monday.

Acme Chattogram clinched the title of the Hockey Champions Trophy with a 4-3 win over Monarch Padma in the penalty shoot-out following a 2-2 draw in regulation time of the exciting final at Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium yesterday.

Shota Iizuka, a Rio Olympic silver medallist from Japan’s 4X100 relay team, today spent an hour with some 30 primary students of Sunnydale Junior School in the capital on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between Japan and Bangladesh.

Having showed some promise in the ISSF World Championship in Egypt last month, the Bangladesh shooters are hopeful of continuing in the same mould in the 15th Asian Airgun Championship which is scheduled to be staged from November 9 till November 19 at Daegu International Shooting Range in South Korea.

Bangladesh Police Club were crowned as champions of the Premier Division Table Tennis League after an exciting 3-2 win over Wari Club in the last match of the Super Four League at the Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Indoor Stadium yesterday.

Sprinter Sarjil Hasan Khan Zedan was disqualified from the eighth-man final of the 400m sprint in the 4th Asian Youth (U-18) Athletics Championships in Kuwait today.