KARACHI: Pakistan have secured their first gold at the South Asian Aquatic Championships in Sri Lanka.

Bisma Khan’s victory in the girls’ under-15 50m backstroke at the Sugathadasa Indoor Swimming Pool in Colombo on Wednesday saw Pakistan get off the mark at the regional event in which seven countries are taking part.

The 14-year-old touched in 32.19 seconds beating India’s Pratyasa Ray, who was 0.63 seconds behind. Sri Lankan Shenali Weerawansa was third in 33.47.

Bisma also managed to finish fourth in the girls’ under-15 100m freestyle category, her time of 1:05.07 just 0.41 seconds of third place and a bronze medal.

There were also fourth-place finishes for 13-year-old Maya Omar Choudhry in the girls’ under-15 200m breaststroke and the girls’ under-15 400m individual medley.

In both cases, Maya was well behind the third-placed finisher.

Maya finished in 3:10.02 in the breaststroke, more than 19 seconds behind Indian bronze medallist Silki Nagpure and 6:16.33 in the medley, 12 seconds behind Imashi Sudusinghe of Sri Lanka.

The other Pakistani competitor on the day was Anushe Engineer who finished fifth in the girls’ under-18 breaststroke.

The championship began with the opening ceremony on Tuesday and runs until Sunday.

This year’s edition features swimming, diving, water polo and open water swimming in the list of events with around 400 athletes under different age categories taking part.

The event which would follow the Asian Age Group Aquatic Championship model is expected to be conducted every two years from 2016 onwards to provide experience for the age group athletes from the South Asian countries.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2016