After a gap of around nine years, the Bangladesh Swimming Federation (BSF) with the help of Bangladesh Navy is all set to hold a talent hunt programme titled "Bangladesh in search of best swimmers-2025", starting today in Dhaka.

The BSF had last conducted a talent hunt in 2016, from which it selected some 60 budding swimmers for a three-year-long training programme. Around half of those swimmers are still active and of them Samiul Islam Rafi and Kajal Mia have gone onto become country's leading swimmers, winning medals in national competitions and representing Bangladesh at the international level.

"Current swimmers like Rafi, Kajal, Omar [Ali], [Mohammad] Islam, Rabiul [Islam], Tofayel Ahmed, Mukti Khatun, Mukta Khatun, Anna [Akhter], Anny Khatun and Rupa Khatun are products of the 2016 talent hunt programme and most of them have represented Bangladesh at the international level," former South Asian Games gold medalist swimmer Shahjahan Ali Rony said.

Rony, also a swimming coach, said the lengthy gap between the talent hunts didn't allow Bangladesh to build a proper pipeline of swimmers, saying, "Truth be told, we don't have a proper pipeline of swimmers at the moment. The talent hunt programme will help build a strong pipeline in coming days."

The local game's governing body is expecting that some 12,000 budding swimmers will turn up in 15 different venues in the first phase which will run from May 10 to June 30.

"We will search for talented swimmers from underprivileged background across the country. We have kept the BKSP swimmers and swimmers who participated in age-group national championships out of the talent hunt programme," said BSF general secretary M Mahabubur Rahman Shahin at a press conference at the Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) auditorium yesterday.

After the initial phase, 600 swimmers will be selected, who would then undergo a two-week training programme in the second phase, at the end of which the number will be trimmed down to 100. After the third and final phase, 50 swimmers would get selected for a two-year training programme.

"It is an initiative to turn talented swimmers into national treasures. Bangladesh Navy chief and BSF president admiral M Nazmul Hassanwe wants to provide them long-term training, accommodation and education during their training under foreign and local coaches," said Mahabubur, adding that they are all set to hunt for talent in all 64 districts and eight division with an 18-member coaching panel which will work in two groups.

Swimmers aged 9-11 will participate in 'A' group and swimmers aged 12-15 will participate in 'B' group. The estimated costs for the whole programme is Tk 6 crore. Prime Bank has come forward as one of sponsors with a contribution of Tk 50 lakh.