Glory In Water: Girls excel in swimming competition

LAHORE: Swimmers from eight to 18 years categories on Wednesday demonstrated their skills at a girls age-group swimming competition arranged by GM Swimming Club. The competition at the WAPDA Sports Complex also attracted swimmers from outside Lahore, who usually get little chance to compete in the sport. Girls from Lahore dominated the event with some remarkable swimming by under-eight and under-10 swimmers. The contest saw exciting races in many categories, with Aliaana Ataullah and Ayesha Hamid, aged eight and 10, locked in battle to complete the gruelling 200m individual medley. The contest that tested all four swimming strokes ended with Ayesha Hamid winning narrowly.

The best swimmers in each age category were: Ameena Ameer (under-eight), Ayesha Hamid (under-10), Mishael Hyat Ayub (under-12), Gulminay Lone (under-14) and Sarah Tajammal (under-16). Ghulam Murtaza, manager of the WAPDA swimming team, said, “Swimming is on a decline in the country . This is because we are making no efforts to promote it. It has become confined to cities like Karachi and Lahore and we have no competitions at the district level to encourage talent.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2014.