Bangladesh’s archery team has faced fresh difficulties at the Asian Games in Japan after encountering an accommodation crisis following a long journey.

The 16-member team reportedly failed to receive its allocated rooms even after spending eight hours in transit at the airport and waiting several more hours after arriving at the cruise ship designated for accommodation.

Due to the lack of assigned rooms, coach Martin Frederick had to stay in the room of Bangladesh Gymnastics Federation general secretary Habibur Rahman Jamil and coach Masum. Three officials were accommodated at a hotel where no food arrangements were available.

Meanwhile, the archers had to spend the night crammed into four rooms. They also reportedly had to leave for training without having breakfast the following morning.

Unlike previous editions, the organisers of the Asian Games have not built a traditional athletes’ village this time. To reduce costs and avoid constructing permanent infrastructure, accommodation has been arranged in hotels, temporary container facilities and the Costa Serena cruise ship.

Several members of the Bangladesh contingent—including athletes from gymnastics, judo, kabaddi, weightlifting, wrestling, table tennis and wushu—have been assigned accommodation on the cruise ship.

The organisers had allocated 31 twin rooms on the cruise ship for 79 Bangladeshi athletes and officials. Of those, eight rooms were designated for 12 archers and four officials.

However, after spending eight hours in transit in Hong Kong and another nine hours at the welcome centre, the archery team still did not receive its assigned rooms.

Bangladesh’s chef de mission, Major (retd.) Imroz Ahmed, acknowledged the problem and said efforts were underway to resolve it.

“The organisers have allocated 31 rooms for us on the cruise ship, although they have not yet handed over all the rooms. As a result, we could not properly allocate rooms to the archers. However, we are trying to resolve their difficulties,” he said.

“Several Bangladesh teams are scheduled to return home on September 26. Hopefully, our accommodation problems will be resolved after that.”

Tanvir Raihan, general secretary of the Bangladesh Archery Federation, expressed frustration over the situation.

“We spent eight hours waiting in transit in Hong Kong. Then we came to the welcome centre and waited for a long time for our rooms. Even after that, we did not receive proper accommodation. The archers somehow spent the night in overcrowded rooms,” he said.

“We had to go to training without breakfast in the morning. If this continues, it will not be possible to achieve good results.”