Thirteen-year-old schoolboy on Monday took just 3 hours and 20 minutes to cross the Bangla Channel in the Bay of Bengal.
Rabbi Rahman, 9th grader of Subil High School in Bogura, secured first place in the 15th Bangla Channel Swimming competition. Rabbi is the youngest Bangladeshi swimmer to cross the Bangla Channel.
Fortune Bangla Channel Swimming-2020 kicked off from Shah Parir Dwip Jetty in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar at 9:25am today. This time the highest number of 40 swimmers crossed the Bangla Channel together.
Saiful Islam, a student of Dhaka University at the department of soil, water and environment, secured the second place with a time of 3 hours and 31 minutes. He crossed the Bangla Channel three times.
Madaripur district’s swimmer Suja Mollah won the third place with a time of 3 hours and 35 minutes.
French swimmer Siegfried Ray finished the swim in 3 hours and 55 minutes. Maunata Afrin of Alamgir Swimming Club in Rajshahi and Soma Roy, a student of mechanical engineering department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, also crossed the Bangla Channel.
According to the organisers, each swimmer was accompanied by a rescue boat and a Bangladesh Coast Guard service boat. The winners were awarded medals on Monday night.
Bangladesh Television’s cameraman Moniruzzaman crossed the Bangla Channel nine times in a row. Mohammad Shamsuzzaman, who won the title of ‘Ironman’ in triathlons in Malaysia, Germany and Thailand, has crossed the Bangla Channel six times.
Ali Raunaq Islam, a member of Prothom Alo Bandhusabha and a student of the mass communication and journalism department at Dhaka University, crossed the Bangla Channel for the first time. Dhaka Metropolitan Police ADC Mishu Biswas and police sergeant Rashedul Islam also successfully finished the swim.
On Monday morning, 43 swimmers started swimming in the 16-km long Bangla Channel. Three of them failed to finish swimming.
“The highest number of swimmers has participated in the swimming competition this time and most of the swimmers were young,” Lipton Sarkar, CEO of Sharaj, told Prothom Alo.
He also said, “We have a plan to organise Bangla Channel swimming with 100 swimmers in the first week of March on the occasion of Mujib’s centenary.”
