KARACHI: Defending champions Karachi Grammar School (KGS) were the overall group winners at the 26th Palmolive Sindh Women’s Swimming Championship at the Karachi Club Annexe here on Sunday.

KGS amassed 381.5 points, followed by runners-up Bayview Academy with 211 points with Karachi American School bagging third position with 137 points in the two-day competition organised by the Karachi Women’s Swimming Association (KWSA).

The event in the six age groups and 69 events saw 10 new records being set. First lady of Pakistan, Begum Samina Arif Alvi, graced the last day as the chief guest and distributed the prizes.

While lauding the efforts of the contestants in her first official appearance, the first lady said she too would have loved to swim as a child but there were no such facilities available to her back then.

“But my daughters have been luckier than me here as they are good swimmers,” she shared.

To the young swimmers she said that she was glad to see that they have taken up such a healthy sport while also not ignoring their studies.

“Swimming is a great sport. It is also a great source of exercise. But unfortunately, due to very few swimming pools available in our country, most of our children, especially those from middleclass homes don’t have access to swimming pools,” she said.

“There is a lot of talent in our country but sadly due to there not being enough swimming pools, real talent in swimming here cannot be developed. This is why I want all schools here, especially government schools to have proper swimming pools. We want to bring the quality of education as well as sports in government schools at par with elite school so that all children get equal opportunity,” she added.

In all, 275 children and 19 institutions took part in the event.

Following are the record-breaking achievements:

Age 14-and-under 100M Medley Relay: Karachi Grammar School.

Age 14-and-under 50M backstroke (Heats): Arisha Lari (Karachi American School).

Age 14-and-under 100M backstroke: Aminah Alavi (Karachi Grammar School).

Age 14-and-under 100M butterfly: Arisha Lari (Karachi American School).

Age 14-and-under 200M IM: Aminah Alavi (Karachi Grammar School).

Age 16-and-under 100M freestyle: Zaha Shaikh (Karachi American School).

Age 16-and-under 200M freestyle: Zaha Shaikh (Karachi American School).

Age 16-and-under 200M IM:Zaha Shaikh (Karachi American School).

Open Age 100M Medley relay: Karachi Grammar School.

Open Age 200M Freestyle: Zaha Shaikh (Karachi American School).

Group champions:

Under-8 age group: Shanzay Bari (Bayview Academy) 18 points.

Under-10 age group: Zyra Diwan (Bayview Academy) 15 points.

Under-12 age group: Iman Shaikh (Karachi Gymkhana Club), 18 points.

Under-14 age group: Arisha Lari (Karachi American Club) 28 points.

Under-16 age group: Zaha Shaikh (Karachi American School), 33 points.

Open age group: Zaha Shaikh (Karachi American School) 27 points.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2018