Junayna hogs limelight

Junayna Ahmed, an English-born Bangladeshi swimmer, was the centre of the attention on the third and final day of the Saif PowerTec 32nd National Age-Group Swimming Championship as she grabbed two more gold medals as the competition came to a close at Syed Nazrul Islam Swimming Complex in Mirpur yesterday.

In the men's section, Jahidul Islam of BKSP was adjudged as the best male swimmer of the tournament after winning eight gold, one silver and two bronze medals which helped BKSP finish on the top with a tally of 42 gold medals, 40 silver and 42 bronze.

Bangladesh Ansar became the runners-up with 28 gold medals, 19 silver and 20 bronze while Junayna's Gopalganj Swimming Club came in third.

Junayna was named the best female swimmer  as the 15-year-old grabbed a total of 10 gold medals from 11 events and set eight national records (hand-timing). Junayna, the eldest daughter of Jubayer Ahmed, was brought to Bangladesh by her father to get a taste of the competitiveness in this part of the world.

“I have only taken one weak preparation for this tournament and won 10 gold medals with a few national records. It is a really happy moment for me,” said Junayna, before adding that she wants to represent Bangladesh at an international level like the Olympics and win a medal for her motherland.

“I want her to represent Bangladesh at different international meets, so I am trying to provide all the facilities in my capacity to make her a good swimmer,” said Jubayer.

Bangladesh national swim team coach Park Tae Gun has apparently welcomed Junayna to come to the side but the the Korean coach is not so optimistic about her prospects outside the country.

“She is good in the context of Bangladesh's competition but her performance is nothing mentionable compared to her age-group swimmers in Japan and Korea. She still needs more improvement to compete at international tournaments and I want to see how much she improves in the next couple of years,” opined Park, who however reserved praise for his own swimmers who have been training for the last three months.    

“I am really surprised to see the improvement of the boys and girls who have trained for only three months but the training has not been uninterrupted because of different holidays, exams of the students and illnesses.

“This group of swimmers are getting sound in terms of techniques and improving their timing day by day because an individual swimmer swam 12000 meter on average per day. If the federation can continue the uninterrupted training for this group of swimmers up to 2019, then we can expect to groom up a bunch of good swimmers who can win gold medals at international meets,” said Park, who guided Bangladesh to two gold medals in the 2016 SA Games.

Approximately 59 swimmers, who were selected through the 'search for the best swimmers' programme, also participated in the age-group championships and some of them outshone swimmers from BKSP and Bangladesh Ansar to win gold medals this time around even though they could barely cross the tournament's set-mark timing during the last edition.

“I didn't get any medal last time but this time I have won three gold, two silver and one bronze medal,” said nine-year-old Ani Khatun from Kushthia, the youngest swimmer in the swimming federation's training programme.

Like Ani, Rabiul Awal from Pabna also had better luck this time as he bagged two gold medals, one silver and three bronze after training for only three months under Park although he did manage a bronze in the last edition as well.