MUSCAT, Dec 5
As many as 85 swimmers took part at the Sprint Challenge Championship on Saturday at the Olympic swimming pools in Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex.
The domestic event for the Oman Swimming Association (OSA) organised under restricted medical protocol and the event was the first after an absence of local tournaments and activities for more than nine months.
The tournament comprised from five categories including: U-10, 11-12 years, 13-14 years, 15-17 years and above 18 years. The participant swimmers came up with a thrilling performance in all the categories and the national swimmers including Abdulrahman al Kulaibi and Muhannad Awlad Thani recorded personal best time.
The championship was attended by the national swimming head coach Srdan Filipovic. At the 18 years and above category for 50m freestyle, the national team swimmer Abdulrahman al Kulaibi claimed the first place award while swimmer Merja came second and swimmer Stoy Word finished in third place. For the backstroke style, the national swimmer Khalid al Jahdhami clinched the first place award while Nawaf al Qasmi grabbed the gold medal of butterfly style.
At the junior category of 15-17 years, the national swimmer Muhannad Awlad Thani bagged the gold medal of the 50 metre-freestyle while Darwish al Balushi and Omar al Balushi ended in the second and third place respectively.
At 50-metre breaststroke, swimmer Omar al Balushi grabbed the gold medal and Adam al Raisi ended in the second place while Abdulrahman al Badi took third place award.
At 50-metre backstroke, Muhanned Awlad Thani grabbed first place title while Tariq al Balushi bagged the title of the butterfly style.
All the competitions were monitored by the international referee Ali al Ajmi as the General Referee while Hamed al Busaidy as assistant for him.
After the end of all the competitions, Mumtaz al Balushi OSA board member and board treasurer, awarded the trophies and medals to the top winners in presence of Ali al Shedi, the head of competitions, and Masoud al Matroushi, board member.
Top Performance
The OSA Chairman, Taha al Kishry, affirmed that the tournament succeeded through large number of swimmers who took part. “Obviously, this huge participation at this event is very attractive to organise more events and championships in the coming months. This is the first local event during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and a dedicated thanks to all the umpiring team, technical and admin teams of the national teams and to the media representatives for the top efforts to success the OSA activities,” al Kishry said. The national swimming head coach, Srdan Filipovic, said that the event was a vital after long break of the local activities.
“I am glad with this return to the domestic events and championship. This event is ranked as crucial station for the forthcoming preparations and part of the training process of the national swimmers. I am impressed with some of the national swimmers performance during the events including Abdulrahman al Kulaibi and Muhannad Awlad Thani who made new personal best time. I hope to have more local events and championships as this will support in shaping the swimmers properly to the forthcoming events,” he added.
Adil Al Balushi
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