On December 16, the 15th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) started at the Etihad Arena, in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

On the first day our FINA Development Center scholarship holders showed decent results, namely: 2 national records from Ali Imaan (Maldives) and a personal best from Salvador Viera Gordo (Angola).

400m freestyle
Ali Imaan (Maldives) he was the first of our FINA Development Center scholarship holders who started at this championship. As a result, his result is 4:24.45, and this is a new national record of the Maldives.

200m butterfly
Salvador Viera Gordo (Angola) on his first day of competition he competed in one of the toughest events. And despite the difficulty of the event, he managed to set his own personal best – 2:03.30

50m breastroke
Kirabo Namutebi (Uganda) competed at the sprint event and showed a result - 33.35. Kirabo was a little short of her personal best

100m backstroke
After a rough 400m freestyle Ali Imaan (Maldives) is back on track, but it's four times shorter. And with a lot of confidence, he broke another Maldives national record. His result – 1:03.02.

100m breastroke
Two of our FINA Development Center scholarship holders performed in this discipline:

Ronan Wantenaar (Namibia) – 1:01.36

Jonathan Chung Yee (Mauritius) – 1:03.78

Like Kirabo Namutebi (Uganda), the boys fell short of their personal bests.

After such a successful day, Ali Imaan decided to share his emotions:

«I am feeling ecstatic with my performance in the FINA World Swimming Championships. Both the 400m Freestyle and the 100m Backstroke performances exceeded my expectations which goes to show that I still have a lot of room for improvement. I will take these results to push myself to improve and reach even bigger heights».

On the second day of the World Championships, Salvador Viera Gordo (Angola) came to the start.

He was the only one of the FINA Development Center scholarship holders who swam that day.

Salvador took part in the 100m butterfly, his time was 54.99.

And we can't forget about our alumni of the FINA Development Center:

Ado Gargovic (Montenegro)
400m freestyle – 3:59.93 (new national recor of Montenegro). Ado was the first from his country who swim under four minutes.

200m freestyle – 1:51.42 (new national recor of Montenegro). He improved his time by three seconds.

Ado also shared his emotions: «My goal was to swim under 4 minutes 400m freestyle, and I finally did it! The pool felt amazing and so smooth during race, my legs didn't give up from me for the first time in middle distance so I'm very happy with result! ».

Bisma Khan (Pakistan)
100m backstroke – 1:08.55 (new national record of Pakistan).

Davor Petrovski (Republic of North Macedonia)
200m butterfly – 2:04.55
200m freestyle – 1:56.54 (new personal best)

Davor has improved his time by 11 seconds!! Unbelievable!!!

Luis Vega Torres (Cuba)
200m butterfly – 1:57.89

100m butterfly – 54.46 (new personal best). Previous time was 54.96.We continue to follow the results of our current athletes and graduates of the scholarship program in Abu Dhabi.