Hamna breaks nine-year national swimming record

Maldivian swimmer Hamna Ahmed has broken a nine-year-old national record in the women's longcourse 100m breaststroke.

Competing at the 127th National Championships in Hungary, Hamna clocked 1:23.38, beating the previous record of 1:24.65 set by Aishath Sajina at the 2016 South Asian Aquatics Championships.

Hamna, who has spent the past two years training and competing in Hungary, has made a habit of setting records in shortcourse events. She was also named the best female swimmer at last year’s National Swimming Championships.

Her new time is the sixth national record announced by the Swimming Association so far this year, with fellow swimmers Meral Ain Latheef and Aishath Ulya Shaaig also making headlines.

Meral, who competed at the Devon County Championships in England, broke the women’s longcourse 200m individual medley record with a time of 2:45.93, surpassing Amna Tazkiya Mirsad’s 2023 time of 2:49.55.

She later claimed the shortcourse 400m individual medley record at the Welsh Capital Open Meet, finishing in 5:49.59. The previous record of 6:26.56 was set by In Abbas Sharif at the 2022 Thailand Shortcourse Championships.

Ulya, who is training in Australia, has set three national records. She broke the women’s longcourse 50m freestyle record with a time of 28.64 seconds at the SWA Hancock Prospecting State Championships, improving on her own previous record of 29.29 set at the 11th Asian Age Group Aquatics Championships.

Ulya also claimed the national record in the longcourse 50m backstroke, breaking Aishath Sausan’s 2019 time of 34.32 seconds. She went on to set a new record in the longcourse 100m freestyle at a University of Western Australia Westcoast Swimming Club meet, clocking 1:05.03 and eclipsing Tazkiya’s previous best from the 2023 national championships.