ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: Two international swimming competitions, one for men and the other for women, will be held in the nation’s capital this year.

This was decided in the General Council meeting of the Pakistan Swimming Federation (PSF), held on Saturday.

Pakistan Invitational (age group) swimming championship will, tentatively, take place in May-June while Women’s Solidarity Invitational swimming championship is scheduled for the month of July.

The three other major international events this year for Pakistani swimmers, both men and women, will be the 18th Commonwealth Games at Melbourne, Australia, (March 15-26), the 10th South Asian Games at Colombo, Sri Lanka, (Aug 17-27) and the 15th Asian Games at Doha, Qatar, (Dec 1-15).

The year’s other international events for which Pakistani swimmers will turn up include the 7th Asian swimming championship at Singapore (March 5-10), the 8th Fina World swimming championship at Shanghai, China (April 5-9), and the 1st Fina World youth swimming championship at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Aug 23-27).

The PSF General Council decided to hold the 47th National swimming championship and the 6th National water polo championship, both at Lahore, in the month of June, and the Inter-provincial youth tournament in the same month at Islamabad.

There will be three swimming events at Karachi, the 14th National (age group) swimming championship and the 1st National junior water polo championship, both in September, and the 1st National Open swimming championship in November.

Of the year’s two national women’s competitions, the 6th National Open swimming championship will take place in Karachi in September and the 8th National (age group) championship at Rawalpindi-Islamabad in November.

Besides finalising the calendar of events for 2006, the General Council discussed further promotion of swimming in the country, especially emphasising the holding of age group championships and availability of foreign coaches.—APP