PESHAWAR
The two-month long Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Summer Swimming Camp jointly being organized by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Swimming Association and Director General Sports got under way here at Adil Khan Swimming Pool, Peshawar Sports Complex on Thursday.
A total of 111 young aspirants under the supervision of Head Coach Asad Hoti, international FINA quailed Coach Mobeen Khan Khalil, life-guard and Coach Saleem Ahmed have supervising the camp with 111 young swimmers in the age of between eight years to fourteen years, are participating.
These coaches in two different sessions of two hours each mainly focused on developing the front wheel and back wheel. He said out of the total 111 young aspirants, 40 top position holders would be short-listed in the second phase and among them 12 others would be selected in the third phase to be fully trained and coach for further participation in the National Junior Swimming Championship.
He said all is being worked on, 40 best swimmers will be selected and they will be passed through different stages. This camp consists of four hours per day in which a two-hour session is being held in the small pool and a two-hour session in the large and deep pool.
Due to the tireless efforts of Asad Hoti, Mubeen Khan and Saleem Ahmed, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa swimmers have established their supremacy in the national junior and national senior competitions in this regard.
When contacted Director General Sports Khalid Mahmood, he said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is producing good swimmers and even in the past the swimmers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa excelled at the national.
The players did not show any special performance which was due to the lack of swimming pool facilities for twelve months. He said, we need an all weather swimming pool and with an all-weather swimming pool, our swimmers could give good results.
This could have been taken into consideration while constructing the swimming pool, Captain (Retd) Khalid Mahmood said. He said that his first priority was to equip the swimming pool with all-weather facilities. He said it has decided to have a specific amount in the next ADP so that to make the pool an all-weather pool.
“Our players will have the facility of a swimming pool in every season,” he said. He said that there are enough medals in the shooting game along with the swimming pool and soon the foundation stone laying ceremony will be held for the establishment of a shooting range in the city to bring out good shooters at national and international levels.
Asad Hoti said that there is no dearth of good swimmers in the province but the non-availability of swimming pools for all seasons has affected the performance due to which our swimmers could not perform as expected.
He said that after the selection of forty swimmers in the second phase, twelve best swimmers will be selected who will represent the province in the Junior National Championship. Mubeen Khan said that there is no shortage of good swimmers in Pakistan and especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but they are lacking hard work. He said hard work is the only tool necessary to maintain the performance, both at the national and international levels. He said the best swimming players from Pakistan are not coming to the international level because the young talented swimmers did not show their commitment toward hard work and dedication.
