Jewel sparkles in pool
Jewel Ahmed and Junayna Ahmed stole the show in the Max group 29th National Swimming, Diving and Water Polo Championships as six new records were set on the second day at the Shaheed Syed Nazrul Islam Swimming Complex in Mirpur yesterday.
Bangladesh Army's Jewel broke three records on way to winning three gold medals while Junayna of Bangladesh Navy added two more records to the two she had set on the previous day. However, the England-born swimmer had to be content with a silver medal -- her first second-placed finish – along with four gold medals in total.
Jewel broke a 14-year-old record held thus far by Rubel Rana when he clocked 1:00.76min to win the 100m backstroke event, breaking the old record by 1.20 seconds. Later, Jewel set a new record by 2.15 seconds in the 400m medley, erasing Jewel Ahmed's record set in 2016.
The Bangladesh Army swimmer was happy with his performance and he was looking forward to better things. “We have been in the national team training camp for the past four to five months. I'm happy to set three records and now I want to do well in this year's South Asian Games,” said Jewel, who won five bronze medals in the last SA Games in 2016.
Asif Reza of Navy, meanwhile, sprung a surprise to beat Mahfizur Rahman Sagor by 0.68 seconds to win gold in 50m freestyle. Asif did it in record time (23.85sec) to erase the previous record held by Sagor.
Asif then teamed up with Manirul Islam, Palash Chowdhury and Mahmudunnabi Nahid to win the 4X200m freestyle gold in record time (8:16.36min).
Junayna, meanwhile, broke the 400m medley record, clocking 5:37.61min, eclipsing the previous record by 9.02 seconds, to win gold. The 17-year-old from England also won 4X200m freestyle relay in record time and won 50m freestyle gold, but she had to be content with a silver medal in 100m backstroke event. She clocked 1:15.41min, losing to Naima Akter of Bangladesh Army, who clocked 1:14.57min.
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