ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s junior swimmers have set multiple national records at the World Junior Swimming Championships in Romania, with teenagers Rayan Awan and Azlan Sohail leading the charge.
Rayan, who is based in Britain, made history in the men’s 50m breaststroke by clocking 30.87 seconds, breaking the 17-year-old national record of 30.98 held by Abdul Aziz Chaudhry since 2007.
He finished 58th out of 86 swimmers in the event. Rayan also competed in the 100m breaststroke (1:10.06) and 200m breaststroke (2:41.71).
Azlan, described as Pakistan’s “junior medley king”, rewrote the under-16 national records in both the 200m and 400m individual medley events.
He swam 2:14.18 in the 200m IM, shattering Ahmed Durrani’s 2023 mark of 2:20.22, and 4:54.68 in the 400m IM, surpassing Muhammad Amaan Siddiqui’s 2022 record of 4:57.86. He placed 47th and 45th respectively in the two races.
Competing in a gruelling 10-event schedule, Azlan also recorded 26.72 in the 50m butterfly, 1:00.10 in the 100m butterfly, 2:24.10 in the 200m butterfly, 54.73 in the 100m freestyle and 4:21.61 in the 400m freestyle.
Ali Mitha contributed strong performances in the sprint events, swimming 25.95 in the 50m butterfly (61st), 25.06 in the 50m freestyle (81st out of 119), 27.38 in the 50m backstroke (43rd out of 87), 1:01.19 in the 100m backstroke (52nd), and 55.55 in the 100m freestyle (104th).
Mohid Sadiq Lone also impressed in the mid-distance events, finishing the 200m backstroke in 2:24.33, the 200m IM in 2:20.78, and the 200m breaststroke in 2:41.02, narrowly ahead of Rayan.
In team events, the quartet of Azlan Sohail, Ali Mitha, Hareem Malik, and Meher Maqbool set a new national record in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay with a time of 4:10.45, according to official results published by World Aquatics.
On the women’s side, Hareem Malik came close to her own national best in the 50m breaststroke, finishing in 36.12 seconds.
She also posted 33.70 in the 50m butterfly and 30.71 in the 50m freestyle, outpacing 14-year-old Fatima Salman, who clocked 35.52 and 32.68 in the same races. Fatima added a 1:19.93 in the 100m butterfly and 2:55.91 in the 200m IM.
Meher Maqbool swam 1:10.03 in the 100m freestyle, 2:28.44 in the 200m freestyle, 35.69 in the 50m backstroke, and 1:17.49 in the 100m backstroke, where she is a national title-holder. Raaqiah Aqeel clocked 35.30 in the 50m backstroke and 2:53.37 in the 200m backstroke.
The women’s relay team of Hareem, Meher, Fatima, and Raaqiah broke two more national records.
They clocked 4:48.46 in the 4x100m freestyle relay, eclipsing the previous 4:49.55, and 5:12.55 in the 4x100m medley relay, smashing the earlier record of 5:36.37.
