Army target another title

LAHORE: The National Men’s and Women’s Open Swimming and Water Polo Championships will be held from July 19 to 21 at the Wapda Sports Board Complex , with 13 affiliated units of the Pakistan Swimming Federation (PSF) participating in the three-day event. Pakistan Army will be the defending champions in both men and women’s competition.

“A total of 557 participants including men and women will take part in the national event,” PSF Secretary Majid Wasim told a media conference at the Wapda complex. “The event includes 38 events of swimming and water polo championship, which further spread into six stokes comprising of freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, individual medleys and relays divided into five lanes.”

The National Championship which has been organised under the Pakistan Army will bring together some of the country’s finest talents. “The swimmer who will beat the national record will be awarded 0.1 million rupees while anyone who surpasses the South Asian Games record will be given 0.5 million rupees and while 5 million rupees will be rewarded to the participant who will cross the Asian record,” said Wasim.

There will be four teams in the women’s water polo, featuring Pakistan Army and Punjab in Pool A and Sindh and Wapda in Pool B. Meanwhile in the men’s category, Army, Sindh, Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata will compete in Pool A and Navy, HEC, Wapda and Balochistan will participate in Pool B.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2010