KARACHI: The first day of McDonald’s 16th National Women’s Junior Age Group Swimming Championship at Karachi Gymkhana on Saturday saw some great swimmers from as young as 10 and under to as old as 16 making big splashes in the pool as several records were broken.

Competitions were held in freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, individual medley, freestyle relay and medley relay. Breaking the previous record of 39.54 seconds, young Ramsha Imran of Navy set a new record of 37.54 in 50m breaststroke in the under-14 age category.

Speaking to Dawn later, Ramsha said that she swims for two hours every day at the Karachi Club. “My practice paid off last year when I started winning competitions and today I also broke the record for 50m breaststroke in my age category,” she chirped happily after her event while adding that her parents, siblings and coaches’ encouragement and support has been great for her.

The person Ramsha gave the most credit for her success was her coach Adnan Ismail, who was sitting somewhere quite away from the competition area as Pakistan Women’s Swimming Association (PWSA) rules do not allow males, whatever their age, to watch girls swim during competitions.

Photography or filming is also strictly prohibited and a mother in a black abaya was pulled up by the technical officials after she was caught filming her daughter during an event. She was told to delete the footage at once.

Seema Zuberi, one of the announcers then made a decent appeal to all mothers to think about the other parents whose little girls are also swimming in the championship. “You may not have an issue with filming your daughter in a swimsuit but there are other girls swimming with them in other lanes, whose parents may not be comfortable with you putting up the footage you shoot on social media,” she said.

The Pakistan Swim­ming Federation (PSF) and its affiliated units including PWSA and Sindh Women’s Swim­ming Association were celebrating the 16th edition of the National Women’s Junior Age Group Swimming Championship as a part of United Nation’s Sports for Peace and Development programme. “Bringing peace through sports is achievable. It is something we strongly believe in,” said Veena Masud, secretary general of PSF.

UN’s Sports for Peace and Development programme gives special importance to swimming as it is considered a fundamental life skill, which everyone, especially children should have the opportunity to learn. But here in Pakistan only the affluent can afford to send their children to clubs where there are swimming pools. Most schools here also do not have pools where the children can learn how to swim.

The manager of team Navy, Huma Ikram, was of the opinion that the government should step in to make it possible for all school children to learn how to swim and compete in swimming with others their age. “Yes, we have some great swimmers in our country who have achieved at the international level as well. But these swimmers are the best among the affluent lot. Think of the talent out there which is not coming up due to lack of swimming pools in our country,” she said.

New records

Event Name(s) Time Institute 50m breaststroke (13-14) Ramsha Imran 37.54 Navy

4x100m medley Fatima, Iman, Arisha, Sarina 06:02.9 Sindh

200m breaststroke (13-14) Laiba Bilwani 03:00.7 Sindh

200m butterfly (13-14) Laiba Bilwani 02:52.5 Sindh

100m freestyle (13-14) Bisma Khan 01:05.8 Army

50m freestyle (15-16) Areeba Shaikh 29.35 Sindh

50m butterfly (13-14) Bisma Khan 32.40 Army

4x100m medley (15-16) Areeba, Araj, Fiona, Fatima 05:52.9 Sindh

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2016