LDN - Sports

Bosnia junior swimming champion makes do with tiny pool in greenhouse

[April 24, 2020] By Dado Ruvic

DOBOJ, Bosnia (Reuters) - Competitive swimmers around the world had their training plans scuppered when coronavirus lockdowns forced the closure of most pools. Not so in the case of Bosnian junior swimming champion Iman Avdic, whose father has come up with a home-made solution.

The 13-year-old Avdic is training in a 3x2-metre pool which sits in a greenhouse in her grandfather's garden. Clad in a wetsuit, she swims while tied to a bungee rope to hold her in place.

At first Avdic, who lives in Sarajevo but is staying with her grandparents in the northern town of Doboj, had maintained her form by hiking and running, but had to find an alternative when authorities barred minors from leaving their homes as part of their measures to contain the new coronavirus.

"It is all kind of odd for me but everything can be done like before but in a slightly different way. It's easy for me to adapt but I miss a real pool," Avdic said.

Her father and coach, Evelin Avdic, said that initially the metal-framed, plastic pool had stood in the open air. Finding that the water was too cold, he came up with the idea of placing the pool inside a greenhouse.

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Iman Avdic's father and coach Evelin Avdic, trains the national multiple swimming record holder, who maintains her form by practicing in a small plastic pool inside an improvised greenhouse in her grandfather's orchard in Doboj, Bosnia and Herzegovina April 23, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

Avdic holds national records in 50-1,500 m freestyle, 100m, 200m, 400m mixed style, 200 m dolphin and 200 m backstroke and breaststroke.

There have been more than 1,400 confirmed coronavirus cases and 54 deaths in Bosnia. Like elsewhere, stay-at-home orders to halt the spread of the disease have hit businesses and jobs.

(Writing by Maja Zuvela; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

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