LAHORE: Swimming coach Nick Gillingham says he is happy over visiting Pakistan to conduct a FINA coaches course and is impressed with the talent of young swimmers.

The course, having 40 coaches from across the country with around 200 boy and girl swimmers aging between 12 to 16 are part of the course, started at the International Swimming Pool here on Monday under the auspices of the Punjab Sports Board.

Gillingham, who is from the UK, says he is happy over being in Lahore where a good number of talent swimmers and coaches are present to hone their skills.

He was of the view that FINA should allocate more such courses to the countries like Pakistan.

The coach said such an important course was being held in Pakistan after lapse of almost eight years which was a big gap.

He expressed hope that skills of the coaches would be improved after attending the course and the best 40 swimmers would be picked for the talent pool.

A female coach, Leady Jone, is also visiting with Gillin­gham to help him in supervising the course. Gillingham’s son Benjamin, who is also a swimmer, is the third visitor.

Gillingham won the silver medal in breaststroke at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and the bronze medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. He has overall shattered three world records, 10 European, nine Commonwealth Games and 17 national records.

Meanwhile, director general of the Punjab Sports Board Zulifqar Ghumman said 40 best swimmers of the course would get further coaching and they would also compete in national events from the province.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2017