Paralympic swimmers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) won three medals and broke eight personal records at the Open Paralympic Swimming Championship of Croatia – ”Croatia Open 2021” in Split.
Although the decision of the crisis headquarters forbade them to train in BiH for several days, because the pools were closed due to the latest measures against Covid, the best paralympic swimmers still managed to succeed in extremely strong competition.
”After fourteen months without any major paralympic competitions in swimming, the Open Paralympic Swimming Championship of Croatia was organized. Despite numerous difficulties, especially the latest one, which forbids us the training, we returned to BiH with medals and good results, ” said the selector of the BiH paralympic swimming team and the head of the professional staff of the Swimming Club ‘Spid’, Amel Kapo.
He expressed hope that the latest success would be an additional reason for the authorities to reconsider their earlier decisions and thus allow them to train as competitors in all other sports in BiH can do.
A total of five BiH national team members from the Sarajevo club had nine starts. The best result was achieved by Nermin Memic in the discipline of 100 meters dolphin and Ismail Zulfic in the 200 meters backstroke who won silver medals.
Ismail Barlov got a bronze medal by swimming in the 200 meters backstroke. The colors of BiH and Swimming Club ‘Spid’ were also defended by Selma Puric in the 100 meters breaststroke and Ajdin Karisik in the 50 meters backstroke, who were in sixth place.
The Championship was organized by the Croatian Paralympic Committee, the Croatian Paralympic Association of Persons with Disabilities, and the ‘Cipal’ Swimming Club from Split.
E.Dz.
