The girl from Jessore won two gold medals in the ongoing SA Games in India. She clocked 34.88s to surpass the time set by Sri Lankan Raheen Mayuni in the 2006 SA Games
It could have been a different tale altogether had Mahfuza Khatun Shila stuck to running instead of swimming. The Bangladeshi golden girl broke a decade-old record at the 12th South Asian Games last Monday.
The girl from Jessore won two gold medals in the ongoing SA Games in India. She clocked 34.88s at Dr Zakir Hussain Aquatic Complex in Guwahati to surpass the time set by Sri Lankan Raheen Mayuni in the 2006 SA Games.
Her first SA Games appearance was in 2006 in Colombo where she was pitted against seasoned rivals. But the girl who would go on to rewrite the record books did not waver and secured bronze medals, giving the world a glimpse of her latent talent.
In the following years, she proved her mettle by finishing at the top of her game thrice at the Indo-Bangla Games in 2007, 2008 and 2010. She also won a gold medal at the Friendship Competition in Nepal in 2010.
An out-and-out athletics fan, Shila was an accomplished sprinter in her early years and won at local and district-level competitions. Things changed after she got admitted to the national sports institute Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan in 2003. It is here that she swapped sprinting for swimming at her coach’s suggestion.
A year later, she represented the BKSP in national competitions. But old habits die hard. During one such competition, she was warming up for swimming but was suddenly called out to take part in a 400m sprint after one of the BKSP contestants had fallen sick. She took up the challenge, ran hard and finished first, to everyone’s amusement.
Shila went on to graduate from the Chittagong University’s Communication and Journalism Department last year. She works at the Bangladesh Navy. She took home five gold medals at the 8th Bangladesh Games in 2013 for the navy.
Her friends, fans and acquaintances, elated at her success, are showering her with praise. “She was part of the national team but never showed off,” Shila’s classmate Smaranika Dhar recalled. “Shila always wanted to win gold medals. Her dreams finally came true. She has won two gold medals for Bangladesh and set a new record.”
Another friend Debbobrata Ray Debu told the Dhaka Tribune that Shila had made the university proud. “I am overwhelmed,” he said. “One of our friends made history.”