Scintillating Sonia

Jahangir Alam of Bangladesh Army powers his way to winning the men's 200m breaststroke in the 23rd National Swimming Championships at the National Swimming Complex in Mirpur yesterday while SONIA AKHTAR ...6 gold medals(inset).Photo: STAR

Sonia Akhtar took top spot with six gold medals while Mahfizur Rahman and Dolly Akhtar grabbed four each when the Mercantile Bank 23rd National Swimming Championships concluded at the National Swimming Complex yesterday.
After taking the first place in the 100m backstrokes, the Jhenidah teenager who participates for BKSP, took a minute and 21.8 seconds to complete her tally of six top slots, equalling her previous year mark.
Sonia had earlier bagged the gold in the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly events, 400m individual medley and the 4x200m freestyle relay.
In yesterday's performance, the Class VII student of BKSP beat off competition from Sabura Khatun (1:05.19s) and Laboni Akhtar (1:25.74s).
After bagging gold in the 50m and 200m in the first two days of competition, Mahfizur took gold in the 400m and 100m events on the last day.
The BKSP swimmer broke his own national record in the 100m freestyle, finishing in 54.22s with teammate Anik Islam at second position on 56.31s.
Later in the day, Mahfizur won the 400m event after easily beating Army duo Sujon Ali and Rezaul Karim with a timing of four minutes and 39.13 seconds. The silver medallist Sujon lagged behind by seven seconds.
On the first day, Mahfizur bagged the men's 50m freestyle in 24.86s, just ahead of Anik while on the second day, he bettered his own record in the 200m freestyle set last year. It was 2:02.09 in 2007 and Mahfizur took 2:00.58s this time.
The four gold medals helped BKSP to end the meet with an impressive 16 first-place finishes in addition to 12 silver and 10 bronze medals to claim top spot ahead of Bangladesh Army, Ansar and Navy.
Both Sonia and Mahfizur were awarded Tk 20,000 each for their grand performances by Mercantile Bank, who also rewarded Tk 10,000 each to young swimmers Anik Islam of BKSP and Nazma Khatun from Kushtia.
Ansar swimmer Dolly, who earlier won the 50m freestyle, 4x100m relay and 50m breastroke, made it four first-place finishes when she won gold in the 200m breaststroke in three minutes and 15.7 seconds. She defeated Kushtia's Momtaz Shirin (3:28.52s) and Soma Khatun (4:24.57s) of Naogaon.
Army however had something to cheer about when Jahangir Alam broke a 21-year-old national record set by Karar Samedul Islam in the 200m breaststrokes. Jahangir took two minutes and 27.11 seconds to easily beat teammate Kamal Hossain and Niaz Ali, who won silver and bronze respectively. Army also won the men's 4x100m medley relay with the team of Wasiul Islam, Shahjahan Ali, Kamal and Rezaul.
Navy's Rubel Rana took gold in the 100m-backstroke event, finishing on a minute and 3.18 seconds, closely followed by Army duo Wasiul (1:05.19s) and Biplob Sarkar (1:06.27).
In other women's events, Nasima Akhtar (5.26.30s) of BKSP won the 400m freestyle, beating off competition from Sabura Khatun (5:30.21s) and Lovely Khatun (5:46.38s).
Afsana Talukdar of BKSP won gold in the 100m freestyle competition, finishing in a minute and 8.4 seconds while Ansar won the 4x100m medley relay after Sabura, Mahfuza Khatun, Laboni and Dolly got home in five minutes and 10.2 seconds. Ansar ended in third spot in the overall points table with eight gold medals while Army finished second with 12 gold medals after winning gold in water polo.
Twelve national records, including four on the concluding day, were set in addition to two SAF records in the competition.
Bangladesh Swimming Federation (BSF) president and Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Sarwar Jahan Nizam distribute medals as chief guest. Additional Managing Director of sponsor Mercantile Bank Ltd AKM Shahidul Haque was also present as a special guest.