Junayna, Ariful ensure Navy's domination
Junayna Ahmed lived up to the hype by bagging nine gold medals and a silver medal with eight in record time as the 29th Max Group National Swimming, Diving and Water Polo Championship came to an end at the Syed Shaheed Nazrul Islam Swimming Complex in Mirpur yesterday.
The 17-year-old from England bagged four more gold medals with three individual records to confirm the domination of Bangladesh Navy over Bangladesh Army.
Junayna broke records in 800m freestyle, 200m individual medley and 100m freestyle by big margin, against defending champions, to confirm her status as the best Bangladeshi female swimmer in her debut appearance in the senior national meet. The other gold she won yesterday was in the 4X100m relay event.
While the race for the best female swimmer was a one-sided affair, it was a close duel in the men's section between Bangladesh Navy's Ariful Islam and Bangladesh Army's Jewel Ahmed.
Even though Jewel could not add to his previous tally of five records today, he did win two silver medals to edge Ariful as the best male swimmer with five gold and three silver medals. Jewel finished second in 200m individual medley and 4X100m relay events. He was given a run for the money by Ariful, who won gold in 50m breaststroke, 200m individual medley and 4X100m medley relay, all in record time. The Navy swimmer finished the championships with five gold, one silver and two bronze medals.
The country's premier swimmer Mahfizur Rahman Sagor, who participates in selective events, managed to win the 100m freestyle gold along with a silver medal. South Asian Games's double gold medallist Mahfuza Khatun Shila won the 50m breaststroke gold as well as 4X100m medley relay gold.
All three gold medals in diving went to Navy while Army became champions in water polo event. Navy emerged as overall champions with 32 gold, 20 silver and 15 bronze medals followed by Army, who won 10 gold, 19 silver and 17 bronze medals.
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