Baqleh leads the way for Jordan at Arab championships

AMMAN — Olympic swimmer Khader Baqleh has taken the Arab Swimming Championships by storm, winning two gold and two silver medals in Tunisia. Baqleh, who is impressing on the USA college scene, set a new Arab record in winning the 200m freestyle, before going on to also win the 1500m in a time of 15 minutes 50.20 seconds.

He settled for silver in the 400m freestyle in a time of 3:53.57, and also set a new Jordan record in the 100m butterfly with a time of 53.94 seconds on his way to silver. The event proved successful for Jordan with Khader’s sister, Talita, winning the 50m butterfly in 25.37 seconds before clinching bronze in the 50m backstroke.

The medals continued to come with Amro Al Wir winning bronze medals in both the 100m and 200m breaststroke. Lydia Al Safadi added a bronze in the 200m Medley. Jordan’s relay teams boosted the medals tally with the men taking bronze in the 4x100m freestyle and the mixed team taking silver in the 4x100m.