Bausher club emerge champions of Oman Open Water Swimming

MUSCAT, May 6

Bausher club’s swimmers delivered a dominating performance to lift the title of the 15th edition of Oman Open Water Swimming Championship which was held in Qurum on Friday noon. The final ceremony was held under the auspices of Eng Ahmed bin Hassan al Dheeb, Vice-Chairman of the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones in presence of Taha bin Suleiman al Kishry, Chairman of Oman Aquatics Federation (OAF) and Fina board member and other invitees. Oman Club were positioned as runners-up of the event.

As many as 75 swimmers representing 13 clubs took part in the domestic Open Water Swimming event. The championship featured different categories including senior category for above of 18 years old, youth category for between 14 to 17 years old and both categories were for a distance of 3 kilometres. Another category was dedicated for masters with 500 metres distance.

In the senior category, Al Amerat club swimmer Ayman al Qasmi bagged the gold medal and first place trophy after clearing the distance as first swimmer. Abdulrahman al Kulaibi from Salalah club ended in second place while Naif al Qasmi from Bausher club finished third.

Mohammed al Habsi clinched the title of masters category while Hassan al Habsi came as runner-up. In the youth category, Mashal al Kulaibi from Al Amerat snatched the winner’s trophy and gold medal while Ibrahim al Wahaibi from Bausher club took second and silver medal while Salalah’s Hilal al Mashari got the bronze.

In another category for private entities, swimmers from Royal Navy Oman (RNO) claimed the title as Ibrahim al Kulaibi got the first place award while Al Waleed al Maskari claimed the silver medal and Ahmed al Falahi received the bronze medal. Later, the chief guest awarded the medals and trophies to the top winners from different categories besides honouring the government and private sectors representatives for their support to OAF.

BIG SUCCESS

Taha bin Suleiman al Kishry, Chairman of OAF, said that the main targets of the event are to boost the sport and involve the domestic clubs to take part in the game. “We are very glad with the number of the swimmers who took part in this edition of the championship and looking for more in our national competitions and events. Moreover, it is great opportunity to have a competition for different categories in one event. Sultanate of Oman has a very wide coastal area in the wilayats and governorates and it is great to have this event across the Sultanate of Oman every year. Thanks for all the participants and clubs for their cooperation to accomplish the success of the tournament,” he ended.

The winner of senior category, Ayman al Qasmi, expressed his satisfaction on winning the title. “I am very glad with this accomplishment. In the beginning of the swimming race, the competition was still in its initial stages. In the following second and third kilometres of the race, I focused and worked hard to end the competition in the first place,” he added. The championship was headed by the Secretary-General of OAF, Malallah al Busaidy, while international referee Said Khairallah was the main umpire and Abdulmoneim al Alawi, Fina open water referee, was the technical director.