Pak duo in high spirits despite loss

Young swimmer Durrani vows to qualify directly for 2028 Games

PARIS:

Teenaged Ahmed Durrani believes Pakistan swimming is on its way to improvement as he vows to perform better at the 2028 Olympics and wants to qualify directly for the mega event.

The 18-year-old competed in the 200m freestyle event and finished last in his heat clocking1:58.67 minutes, which is far from his personal best.

The 20-year-old Jehanara Nabi also participated in the 200m freestyle women’s event and finished third in her heat but overall 26th out of 30 swimmers. She too did not manage to clock her best time.

However, both youngsters were participating on universality spots. These two are the best swimmers Pakistan has to offer at the Games.

“It means a lot to me that I got to perform at the Olympics, it really was a dream come true,” Durrani told this correspondent. “The reality is that you really don’t know what it is actually like until you stand on the block. You really can’t prepare enough, you can’t imagine the feeling till you are there.

“I spoke to other Olympians and they said the same thing. The magnitude of it all, with over 100,000 people watching you, it is a great moment.”

The teenager explained his experience as he was about to perform at the La Defense Arena, “Time slows down, everything seems to be in slow motion. I could hear my heartbeat, it sped up and slowed down, I could also barely hear my name.

“The closest way I could explain to you is that it was like time goes slowly and I could feel the blood rushing to my head, it was a good feeling.”

Even though he came last, Durrani said he aimed to be an ambassador for Pakistan and may inspire others too to start swimming.

The UAE-based athlete, however, said that his ideal trajectory would be to keep working hard and qualify directly for the 2028 Olympics.

“We participated on Universality quota this time. Of course, I want to qualify directly the next time,” added Durrani.

When asked how Pakistan is lagging far behind compared to other countries, he was quick to disagree.

“We are not very far behind we are rather on a learning curve. Yes there has been a stagnant period in the past but our target is to be among the top 20 countries in the world,” said Durrani, brimming with enthusiasm.

According to him, Pakistan needs more facilities, better equipment, and just more awareness when it comes to swimming, not just as a sport but as a survival skill.

“We have so much potential in Pakistan, we can have so many great swimmers but there is a lack of awareness about swimming as an activity, not just as a sport. “It should be taught to all as a survival skill. So many people in Pakistan die of drowning too. So I would like the youngsters to get inspired and pick swimming, I hope my participation can do that for the Pakistani youth,” said the young swimmer.

Talking about the future he says his young age gives him an advantage to explore more options.

“I’m young and there are four more years so, who knows, I might want to compete in 100m, 200m, a swimmer peak usually begins from age 24, so I have time.”

Durrani has been swimming for almost 15 years and he has a passion for the sport.

Besides the event, Durrani said that the experience at the Paris Games has been amazing. He praised the athletes’ village with exquisite facilities and spoke of camaraderie he found with the Nepalese, Bangladeshi and French coaches and athletes.

Meanwhile, in other sports Kishmala Talar and Gulfam Joseph will be competing in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre on Monday morning.

Kishmala finished at 31st place in the 10m air pistol women’s event while Gulfam had a disappointing run in men’s 10m air pistol event compared to the Tokyo Olympics campaign on Saturday.

Gulfam finished at 22nd place, seven points behind Germany’s Robin Walter who cut into the top eight to qualify for the final.

Arshad Nadeem and Faiqa Riaz are also training hard.