Veteran swimmer Dolly Akhter set a national record in the Prime Bank 25th National Swimming Championship but her side Bangladesh Ansar relinquished the top position on the second day at the National Swimming Complex in Mirpur Moday.
Dolly, who bagged two gold on Sunday, got the chance to participate in 50m backstroke for the absence of teammate Sabura Khatun and surprised all by producing a new record at 34.92 seconds.
Interestingly enough, the previous record belonged to Sabura who set the 50m mark record at a time of 35.16 seconds in the 2010 edition.
Apart from Dolly’s feat, Bangladesh Ansar’s Sonia Akther three gold on the second day, but inspite of that failed to maintain their lead as rivals Bangladesh Navy came strongly by bagging seven gold for a total haul of 12 gold, six silver and four bronze.
Bangladesh Ansar follow Navy with 11 gold, 10 silver and one bronze while Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishan were in the third position with two gold, one silver and three bronze.
Sonia, who won 200m butterfly along with 200m backstroke and 400m individual medley on the opening day, swept the butterfly category by winning 50m butterfly, 100m butterfly and 400m butterfly on the second day.
Sonia, however, could not shine in the other events as freestyle, backstroke and individual medley. BKSP’s Afsana Talukdar grabbed the limelight as she finished way ahead of Sonia in the 200m freestyle at a time of 2:32.71 minutes, finishing six seconds ahead of her competitor. Afsana put Sonia behind in 200m individual medley too at a time of 2:50.09 minutes. Sonia took 2:50.70 minutes to
complete.
Meanwhile, Rubel Rana of Bangladesh Navy continued his dominance on the pool as the SA Games gold medallist followed up his brace by winning two more gold on the second day; one in 200m individual medley and the other in 50m backstroke.
Rubel’s teammate Mahfuzur Rahman also followed the feat by winning two more gold in 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle for Navy. Nazrul Islam and Anik Islam of Navy won gold in 100m butterfly and 50m butterfly respectively.