Bangladesh swimmer put on a decent show in his only event in London Olympics when he clocked 24.64 seconds to finish 39th among 58 swimmers in the 50-metre freestyle heat on Thursday.
The timing and position easily met the expectation of Mahfizur, Bangladesh’s best freestyle swimmer in the last five years, who came here thankfully via a wildcard given to him by the world swimming body FINA.
It was by far Bangladesh’s best feat in a swimming event in Olympics since they started participating in the sport in Atlanta 1996. Four years ago in Beijing, Rubel Rana represented Bangladesh in 100-metre backstroke and finished last among the 45 competitors.
The last time Bangladesh participated in men’s 50-metre freestyle swimming, in Athens 2004, Jewel Ahmed finished way behind his rivals clocking 25.47 seconds.
‘I am really satisfied with my performance,’ said Mahfizur. I tried my best, though it was not my best timing. I am still happy as I have already improved my timing from the world championships.’
Mahfizur had clocked 24.82 seconds in Shanghai in the world championships last year which helped him earn the wildcard. Coming here in London his main goal was to improve this and possibly lower his timing of 24.53 seconds at the 2010 SA Games.
‘My career best timing was at the SA Games. But I knew it would be difficult to surpass that as I did not have similar training like SA Games this time,’ he said.
‘Before the SA Games I took training for almost one year and four months. I was under a Korean coach for six months and trained in
China for three-and-a-half months and compared to that I have done almost nothing before the Olympics.
‘Still I am happy as I was not that far behind from other swimmers. In the past we were used to seeing our swimmers finishing among the lasts. At least I wasn’t like that,’ said Mahfizur, a former BKSP boy, who is now serving Bangladesh Navy as a junior commanding officer.
Mahfizur’s experience in London was limited to mingling with top swimmers, though he said he was not always successful. His one wish remained unfulfilled as he missed the chance to take a photograph with US legend Michael Phelps.
While Bangladesh’s swimmers are still happy just taking photographs with fellow contenders, Mahfizur, who was also Bangladesh’s flag-bearer in the opening ceremony, said it is not very difficult to fight with them neck-and-neck.
‘I sincerely believe winning an Olympic medal is not completely impossible. All we need to do is to identify the talent in their very young age and send them abroad for a long-term training, say for 10 years,’ he said.
Mahfizur took up swimming as his main sport only at the age of seven having been inspired by Karar Samedul Islam, Bangladesh’s representative in 2000 Sydney Olympics.
He struck his first gold at senior level in 2005 when he was just 12, but sadly nobody was there to take care of him. He had to learn all his trade at the BKSP, which, sadly is not good enough to produce an Olympic medallist.
-With New Age input
