Records galore on opening day
KARACHI: The best swimmers of the province made a big splash at the Karachi Parsi Institute (KPI) as where seven records were broken on the opening day of the 23rd Palmolive Sindh Women’s Swimming Championship here on Saturday morning.
The championship usually held at the Karachi Gymkhana pool for several years now came back to the serene surroundings of KPI, which has the honour of producing exceptional swimmers who have over the years made it to the international level for Pakistan.
About the championship, Dinaz Irani, president of Karachi Women’s Swimming Association (KWSA), the organisers, said that the provincial swimming championships have been instrumental in providing the opportunity to female swimmers of Sindh to make it to the national level and then on to the international arena.
“It is the nursery of our swimming talent that has dominated Pakistan’s swimming,” she said.
Among the action, in the meantime, the swimmers participating in freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, individual medley, freestyle relay and medley relay competed in six age groups — eight and under, nine to 10, 11 to 12, 13 to 14, 15 to 16 and open group.
Last year’s youngest swimmer Daniya Bhatia, who was only five years old then, and who had to be rescued from the middle of the pool by an older and stronger swimmer after she froze on seeing older girls overtaking her, looked far more confident this year as she effortlessly finished her race.
“She’s six now and more at ease with the idea of competition,” the child’s mother shared with a smile.
Meanwhile, there was another youngest swimmer this time around in five-year-old Shanzeh Bari of Bay View Academy, completing in not one, not two but three events, namely freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke. On coming out of the pool each time, the little girl was handed a towel by an older girl in the same team.
“That’s her elder sister, eight-year-old Haya Bari, who adores her little sister and is very proud of her but Shanzeh, being very competitive by nature, wants to beat her sister in all races,” the girls’ mother, cheering them from the sidelines, shared.