Not much to cheer for in swimming

Swimming has been Bangladesh's second best discipline after shooting in the South Asian (SA) Games as Bangladesh have won 15 gold out of total 62 from the pool since the introduction of the regional multi-sport extravaganza in 1984.

After failing in the inaugural Kathmandu edition, Bangladesh surprised all to win six out of 15 gold medals in the second edition held in Dhaka in 1985, and since then Bangladesh have won at least one gold medal from pool in each edition except for the 1999 Kathmandu and the 2010 Dhaka SA Games.

Once Bangladeshi swimmers like Mosharraf Hossain, Bazlur Rahman and Mokhlesur Rahman dominated the pool, but now the country lacks such gold-producing swimmers. Hence the performance of current swimmers like Mahfizur Rahman Sagar, Anik Islam, Jewel Ahmed, Asif Reza, Kamal Hossain and Shariful Islam does not give much hope about breaking the one-decade gold drought in the upcoming SA Games in India next month.

“It is not true that Bangladesh can't produce swimmers like Mosharraf, Bazlur or Mokhlesur. The fact is that current swimmers are producing better timing than the gold-medal winning swimmers but they can't compete against swimmers from India or Sri Lanka, who have improved more than the Bangladeshi swimmers,” said Mohammad Abdul Hamid, camp commander of swimming squad and a member of Bangladesh Swimming Federation.

Hamid, however, could not provide any hope of gold medal from 38 events Bangladesh will be vying for but the former coach is pinning slim hope on the breaststrokers.

Breaststroke is the event in which Bangladesh won six gold medals out of 15 from 11 editions and it is also mentionable that the last gold from the pool came in breaststroke in 2006 Colombo SA Games where Shahjahan Ali Rony won in the 50m breaststroke event.

Rony, who won a silver medal in that event last time around, will be competing in the same event this time as well. The 29-year-old swimmer seemingly lacks confidence to repeat the Colombo feat.

“I will only compete in 50m breaststroke and will be trying to put my best,” said Rony. “If Indian swimmer Sandeep Sejwal does not participate, then it will be easy for me to produce a good result.”

Sandeep timed 28.26 seconds to win 50m breaststroke bronze medal in 2014 Asian Games while Rony's best timing is 30.43 seconds even though the Army swimmer is taking around 29 seconds in practice now.

Rony believes there are also a couple of good breaststrokers in the squad, with Kamal Hossain and Mahfuza Khatun Shila having bright chance of win gold medals as both of them will be competing in more than one event.

Kamal won silver medal in 200m breaststroke before grabbing two bronze medals in 50m and 100m breaststroke while Shila won silver medals in 50m and 100m breaststroke.

“Coach Park [Tae Gun] is hopeful about me but my first target is to retain all medals I won in the last edition. If things go accordingly, there is a chance of winning a gold medal because I am taking almost same time as the Indian swimmers took to win 50m breaststroke gold medal in last edition,” said 34-year-old Kamal.