Dolly Akhter came out of retirement to win a gold medal on the final day of swimming discipline in the Bangladesh Games at the National Swimming Complex at Mirpur on Wednesday.
Dolly, a veteran of two Olympics, who went into retirement two years was ago, was persuaded by her team Bangladesh Ansar to return to pool and the decision paid off as she won the 100-metre freestyle gold with a timing of 1:06:44 seconds.
This was only gold medal for Ansar in swimming, a discipline dominated by Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Army, who claimed 22 and 10 gold medals respectively in aquatics.
‘I did not expect this as I am out of swimming for many days,’ said Dolly, who won a silver medal in the 2004 SA Games. ‘However, the Ansar officials encouraged me to the success. I am really happy today,’ said the 27-year-old veteran swimmer.
Mahfizur Rahman of Navy, Bangladesh’s representative at the 2012 London Olympics, set two national records on the final day, taking his individual tally to four golds and one silver medal in the meet.
Mahfizur won men’s 100-metre freestyle in 52.88 seconds improving the previous national record of 53.65sec.
His second record of the day came in 400-metre freestyle, which the Pabna swimmer won in 04:23:40 seconds, bettering the previous record of 04:28:54 by more than two seconds.
Mafizur, who created four records overall in the pool, however, is not the best swimmer in the meet as far as medals tally is concerned. The honour will go to Jewel Ahmed of Bangladesh Army, who won six individual gold medals in in the Games.
Jewel’s sixth gold came on the final day in men’s 100-metre backstroke in 1:02:97 seconds.
Nazma Khatun of Bangladesh Navy was the most outstanding female swimmer of the Games, winning her fourth gold medal of the meet in women’s 400-metre freestyle in 5:21:14 seconds.
One major highlight of the final day was the third gold medal of BKSP girl Rumana Akhter, who won the women’s 200-metre backstroke clocking 3:01:28. Sonia Akter Tumpa also won three gold medals in the Games.
-With New Age input
