The four-day-long National Swimming, Diving, and Water Polo Competition begins once again without the electronic scoreboard at the Syed Nazrul Islam National Swimming Complex in the city on Monday.
A total of 595 swimmers 鈥� 516 male and 79 female 鈥� from 67 teams, including Divisional and District Sports Associations, Swimming Club, Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Prothistan, Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Air Force, Bangladesh Police and Bangladesh Ansar, are expected to compete in the competition.聽
The swimmers will participate in a total of 40 events, comprising 20 male and 20 female categories, in addition to two mixed relay events.
The federation has introduced three diving events for female divers, while male divers will also compete in three diving events.
For the first time in the tournament, events will include the men鈥檚 800-metre and women鈥檚 1500-metre freestyle, alongside the men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 100-metre mixed freestyle relay and the men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 100-metre mixed medley relay, all adhering to the format established by World Aquatics competitions.
Bangladesh Swimming Federation鈥檚 general secretary Mahbubur Rahman Shahin disclosed the details of the competition during a press conference at the Bangladesh Olympic Association auditorium in the city on Sunday.
The long-standing crisis of the malfunctioning electronic scoreboard at the competition鈥檚 venue was the centre of discussion once again, as it was before the 33rd edition of the national meet in November 2024.
The existing electronic scoreboard has never been used in a competition due to its flaws since its installation in 2019 with Tk 5 crore spent by the National Sports Council.
鈥楾he results will be measured by hand timing, as the existing electronic scoreboard is not聽 functioning for long,鈥� Shahin replied to a query in the press conference.
Shahin also claimed that a functional electronic scoreboard has remained a distant goal despite repeated attempts to engage the authorities, including sports advisor Asif Mahmud, to make the existing one operational.
鈥楢fter taking the charges of the federation in January 2025, we organised seven tournaments so far, and we informed the sports advisor and the NSC executive director about the electronic scoreboard issue, but we got nothing but verbal assurance,鈥� said Shahin.
鈥榃e will raise the issue again during the inauguration ceremony of the competition to the chief guest, NSC鈥檚 executive director Kazi Nazrul Islam,鈥� he added.
