A Kushtia success story
Sports Reporter
Riding the wave of Babita Khatun's magnificent success, Bangladesh Ansar finished top in the Keya Cosmetics 23rd National Age Group Swimming Competition that concluded yesterday at the National Swimming Complex in Mirpur.Babita won a stunning eleven gold medals to be adjudged best swimmer in the girl's group while Mohammad Al Amin of BKSP secured nine gold medals to become best performer in the boy's section and both received cash awards of Tk 50,000 each from the meet's sponsor Keya Cosmetics Ltd. Bangladesh Ansar grabbed 46 gold, 28 silver and 26 bronze medals to finish top while BKSP finished a distant second securing 27 gold, 40 silver and 17 bronze medals. Alamgir Swimming Club of Rajshahi placed third with 25 gold, 9 silver and 16 bronze medals. Interestingly all the Ansar swimmers who bagged gold medals came from the one village of Amla in the Kushtia district. "We are excited especially because we clinched the top slot after 1995. We picked up the swimmers from Kushtia under our talent hunt programme. Babita is very talented and she would need proper nursing to make her mark in the senior and international levels," said coach Imdadul Haque. Babita however was excited by the cash award. "My family is not well-off that's why the money will help us lot," she said. Six national records featured in the three-day competition and two were seen on the closing day in the girls' 10- year-age groups. Nazma Khatun of Bangladesh Ansar alone made four national records out of the six. Nazma created the both records on the day in the 50-meter butterfly clocking 39.51 seconds to better the previous mark of 41.47 seconds while in the 100-meter freestyle she finished with a timing of 1:24.06 minutes improving on the old mark of 1:24.79 minutes. A total of 100 events were decided on the three-day national age group meet. President of Bangladesh Swimming Federation and Navy Chief Vice Admiral Sarwar Jamal Nizam was the chief guest in the day's closing function of the three-day meet and distributed the prizes while director of the sponsor company Akkas Ali Pathan was present as special guest. Keya Cosmetics also awarded Tk 10,000 each to all the national record holders in addition to a special award of Tk 10,000 given to the Alamgir Swimming Club of Rajshahi.
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