Commando’s shot into athletics record

Golam Sarwar, a SWADS ( Special Warfare Diving and Salvage) commando from Bangladesh Navy, yesterday wrote his name in Bangladesh's athletics history with a new national record in shot-put event of the 47th National Athletics Championships at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.

A member of the force which provides security for the Prime Minister and the President, Sarwar had a couple of pauses in his athletic pursuits. But he keeps coming back to track and field, which helped him clear 14.89 metres in the shot put event and eclipse the previous record set by Mohammad Ibrahim in 2019 by 0.36 metres.

Sarwar had a decent sporting career before he joined Navy in 2012, having played in the Dhaka 3rd Division Cricket League for East End Club as a pacer. But financial constraints in his family prompted him to join the defence force as a soldier. Despite leaving cricket, the man from Jashore kept himself engaged with sports by taking part in inter-base sports competition in 2014 from where he got selected in short put event for the central sports team.

"I probably cleared more than nine metres in shot put event in inter-base sports before getting selected by Bangladesh Navy Sports Control Board," said Sarwar, who started participating in national athletics championships in 2015 but returned empty-handed before becoming runner-up in the 2019 Summer Athletics Championships.

But his sporting pursuits were brought to a halt in 2019 when Sarwar was posted in South Sudan on a UN mission. Three years later, Sarwar returned to the field and grabbed his first gold medal in the national championships by clearing 14.23 metres.

Sarwar informed that he had cleared 15.10 metres in training but yesterday he could not repeat his practice performance due to pain on his wrist. However, he believes he can clear 16 metres if he gets better training facilities.

"If we are given chance at international meet, we will be more inspired and will do more hard work in training. We also need to increase training facilities. If we are given ground, coach and training facilities by the federation, we can do better at international level," said Sarwar, also stressing on the need for arranging better diet with high protein, especially for athletes in throwing events like himself.

47th National Athletics Championships

* Best male athlete: Golam Sarwar

* Best female athlete: Shirin Akter

* Best coach: Abdullah Hel Kafi

* In 38 events, five national records were set

* Results of men's 800m withheld over Army complaint

* Marathon will take place on Feb 14

* Fastest woman Shirin Akter grabbed maximum four golds

*Fastest man Imranur Rahman won two gold

* All gold medals were shared by Army and Navy

* Bangladesh Navy won 19 gold, 18 silver, 12 bronze.

* Bangladesh Army won 19 gold, 17 silver, 12 bronze.