Ariful, Summa shine on opening day

The Syed Nazrul Islam National Swimming Complex in Mirpur was not as crowded as is the case during age-group swimming championships, but there was certainly some enthusiasm among the 121 participating swimmers from eight divisions on the first day of the final phase of the inaugural Bangladesh Youth Games yesterday.

These games are believed to be the platform for talented athletes to be picked for future training and yesterday, the already-trained swimmers, who were unearthed through the 'search for the best swimmers' initiative, dominated the pool to share eight gold medals among them.

Approximately 20 swimmers from the long-term training under national coach Park Tae Gun are representing their respective divisions in 14 events -- seven for boys and seven for girls. There are also some BKSP students representing their respective divisions. However, the majority of the participants are raw and seemingly incapable of competing against the trained swimmers.

Ariful Islam of Kishorganj, a former BKSP student and national swimmer hogged the limelight on the first day by bagging three gold medals. Summa Akter of Jhenaidah, the younger sister of national swimmer Sonia Akter Tumpa, won two gold medals. Both these swimmers are part of the long-term training camp, being run by the national swimming federation.

Also among the gold medals were Al Amin, Rupa Khaun and Khadiza Akter Bristy of Kushtia – all of whom are part of the training camp.

Ariful, the national champion in 50m and 100m breaststroke events, is currently in training to take part in the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Australia. He easily outshone other participants in 50m breaststroke and 50m and 100m freestyle events. He has a great chance of adding two more gold medals today in the 200m freestyle and 100 breaststroke events.

However, it was Summa Akter, daughter of a betel-leaf vendor in Jhenaidah, who delighted everyone by winning gold in the 50m and 100m freestyle events. Summa, who enrolled in BKSP in 2014 from a village Madrasa, caught the attention of the selectors during the talent hunt programme after winning a gold medal in 50 freestyle. She had received Tk 5 lakh cash-award from the Prime Minister and used it to turn her father's shop into a grocery.

“I want to be a big swimmer and want to take part in the Olympics like my elder sister [Sonia Akter Tumpa],” Summa said, adding that her first target is to get a place in the national team to represent Bangladesh in the South Asian Games.

Though there were no mentionable swimmers outside the trained-up and BKSP swimmers, Ria Akter of Khulna division, Shrabanti Akter of Chittagong division and Rokeya Akter of Rajshahi division had the satisfaction of returning home with at least a medal each.

Khulna division dominated the pool with five gold medals followed by Dhaka division, who rode on Ariful's efforts to win three gold medals.

However, the first gold medal of the final phase of the games went to shooter Mehdi Hasan Limon of Rajshahi division. He won golf in boys' 0.177 Open Sight Air Rifle event at the Gulshan Shooting Complex.

Out of six events decided yesterday, Khulna division won two while Dhaka, Mymensingh, Rajshahi and Barisal bagged one apiece.