Bangladesh Ansar became champions in the Walton 24th National Swimming Competition after clinching 18 gold medals in the four-day meet. Ansar added another five golds to their tally on the concluding day on Sunday.
Bangladesh Army finished second with 12 golds while Bangladesh Navy secured third position with seven gold medals.
Sonia Akhter of Bangladesh Ansar cemented her name as the queen of the pool by winning seven individual gold medals as well as three relay golds.
She set seven new national marks and anchored her team to new national records in the relay events.
Sonia clocked 1 minute 17.44 seconds in the 100 metre backstroke setting a new national mark and later teamed up with Sobura, Dolly and Laboni to create another new record in the 4X100m relay with a timing of 05:02.20 seconds.
Her team-mate Sobura Khatun was not far behind the swimming queen.
Sobura also won the 800m freestyle in 10:48.74 seconds setting a new national mark. She later wiped out the old record of 100m freestyle by clocking 01:05.91 seconds to win her sixth individual gold. Sobura, like Sonia, won three relay golds to take her tally to nine, just one less than Sonia’s.
While Sonia and Sobura were dominating in the women’s events, Mahfizur Rahman of Bangladesh Army rocked the men’s section with three gold medals. Mahfizur crated a new national record in the 100m freestyle with a timing of 53.65 seconds, won the 1,500m freestyle clocking 18:25.79 seconds and was a part of the army team that won the 4X100m relay in 04:05.12 seconds, a new national mark. He won seven gold medals including two from relay events.
Sarwar Hossain of the BKSP proved himself as the best diver of the country by winning both the golds of three and five metre springboard and platform diving events while Abul Kalam Azad of Army won gold in 1 metre springboard.
Bangladesh Navy overcame the challenge of Bangladesh Army to grab the title of waterpolo while Bangladesh Police finished third.
