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KARACHI: Pakistan Swimming Federation’s (PSF) initiative to field three foreign-based swimmers in the World Swimming Championships in Barcelona while ignoring home-based deserving swimmers has raised many eyebrows in the country.

Sources in the PSF told ‘The News’ that it was surprising that the PSF was giving preference to the foreign-based swimmers.

They said ignoring the country’s top female swimmer Kiran Khan for the world affair was a big question mark over the policy of the PSF.

Kiran, who has been the country’s leading swimmer for the last 13 years, has been in great form. She lifted a record 15 gold medals in the National Games recently held in Islamabad.

She should have been an automatic choice for the World Championship, said sources.

The PSF also ignored male swimmers of Army who excelled in the Islamabad event. “The PSF should have held open trials and picked the best performers for the World Championship,” a source said.

A PSF source said that the federation was in wrong hands and if action was not taken by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) against the responsible people it would damage the careers of the local swimmers.

Pakistan is being represented at the world extravaganza in Barcelona by England-based Anum Bandey, her brother Haris Banday, Dubai-based Liana Swan and Karachi-based Syed Mazhar Hussain Naqvi.

“The PSF should bring in the foreign swimmers to Pakistan for national championships to see who is better,” a home-based swimmer challenged.

A PSF source demanded that the PSB investigate why the federation treated the local swimmers in this manner.

This correspondent has learnt that the PSF has taken the team to Barcelona without obtaining an NOC from the PSB. ‘The News’ tried to seek PSB’s top officials’ comment on the matter but they could not be reached on phone.

It was also noted that the team was unveiled only after the swimmers and officials had reached Spain. This is not the first time that the PSF has done so. Ahead of the World Championship in Shanghai a few months before the 2012 London Olympics the PSF had issued names of a couple of swimmers to the press and that official list was missing Anum Banday.

But surprisingly when she performed well in that event in China the PSF also had to disclose her name which was not in the original list. Kiran also participated in that World Championship but it was Anum who was given the ticket for London to become an Olympian at a very young age.

Meanwhile, according to information provided by the PSF, Anum Banday bettered her previous 200m breaststroke national record when she inked a timing of 02:55.65 in the World Championship on Thursday. Her previous timing was 02:57.54.

So far three national records have been bettered in the Barcelona affair, PSF claimed. Anum will feature in the 50m breaststroke on Friday.PSF president Major (retd) Majid Wasim has been elected as the executive member of the FINA Masters Committee.

He already holds the post of chairman Asian Masters Committee and Associate Secretary of the Asia Swimming Federation.

Courtesy: THE NEWS

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