Ali Thameem
As the 2026 Commonwealth Games concludes its swimming events, the Maldives national team has shown a level of performance unlike any other time at an international tournament.
Despite not making it past the preliminary rounds, Maldivian swimmers will return home with a total of 12 renewed national records in long-course swimming. In twelve out of the seventeen strokes they competed in at Glasgow, the swimmers clocked the fastest time in Maldivian swimming history.
it is worth breaking down how the Maldivian athletes fared in the strokes they competed in, the national records they broke, and how they are progressing inside the long pool within the broader historical context.
On the first day, Mohamed Aan Hussain finished the 50m Backstroke race in 29.18 seconds, just 1.09 seconds behind the heat winner. The 50 metre men’s long course backstroke record’s previous fastest timing, held by Aan himself, had remained at 29.51 seconds for over two years. This was also an improvement of 3.23 seconds from the last Commonwealth Games, when Rihan swam the stroke in Birmingham.
Aan also swam the 50m Freestyle, finishing at 24.59 seconds – just 0.59 seconds behind the heat winner.
This was the 22-year-old’s second time competing at the Commonwealth Games. Aan had swum the 50m Freestyle event at the Birmingham Games in 2022 as well, and clocked 24.82 seconds.
Seventeen-year-old Looth Mohamed went to Glasgow already having three breastroke national records to his name. He will return having improved the timing in two of those strokes; the 100m and the 50m.
Competing in Heat 2 of the 100m breastroke event on Friday, Looth finished the race in one minute and 10.63, outperforming the national best timing Looth himself held since he first claimed it last August in Romania. Looth would go on to renew the 50m Breaststroke record, finishing the race in 31.54 seconds.
Both of these breaststroke records had been held by Mubal Azzam before Looth claimed those at last year’s Junior World Championships.
Just as Aan, this was Mohamed Rihan Shiham’s second time competing at the Commonwealth Games. At the Birmingham Games in 2022, a 15-year-old Rihan finished the 200m Butterfly race in 2:37.81. Four years on, Rihan has shortened it by 13.87 seconds, as he completed the stroke in Glasgow in 2:23.94.
This timing is an improvement of 1.26 seconds on the national record Rihan himself had claimed since last year’s World Aquatics Championships, when he completed the race in 2:25.20.
On Tuesday, Rihan went on to shave the timing in the 400m Individual Medley by 1.35 seconds. Rihan had claimed the record last month at the Bahrain Cup.
Meral and Thazkiya make Freestyle history
Perhaps the most remarkable of the records broken at the Glasgow is that of the women’s 200m Freestyle stroke. Competing in Heat one of the event, 17 year-old Meral Ayn Latheef, finished the race in 2:25.08, claiming the national record held by Aminath Shajan for the past ten years. Although it was a mere 240 milliseconds of improvement on Shajan’s record, it was a landmark moment for Meral and for women’s swimming.
It was a long time coming, but rather inevitable. Just last year, a 14-year-old Amna Thazkiya Mirsadh had clocked 02:26.13 at the 200m Freestyle event at World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in Romania. Meral herself had previously come close to breaking the record in Romania, clocking 02:28.49.
As impressive as Meral’s record was, just as impressive is the feat of the prodigy two years her junior: Amna Thazkiya Mirsadh.
Over the past twelve months, the teenage sensation had broken multiple long course national records. Just last July, Thazkiya reclaimed the 100m Freestyle record from Ulya Shaiq. Thazkiya was 13 when she first claimed the 100m Free. Now at 15, she has now improved on the record in Glasgow once more, completing the race in 1:02.74.
Thazkiya would go on to renew the 50m Freestyle national record. Improving it for the second time since she first claimed the national record, Thazkiya has now shortened it by 0.65 seconds. The 50m Free national best timing was previously held by Ulya Shaiq before Thazkiya claimed it last year.
Thazkiya would go on to break two more individual national records. Both in the backstroke. Both previously held by Thazkiya herself. In Glasgow, she has improved the 50m record by 1.02 seconds, and the 100m by 02.23 seconds.
On top of the individual national records, the Maldives swimming team clocked the national best timings in two relay events: the 4x100m Mixed Medley and the 4x100m Freestyle. The three athletes Thazkiya, Meral and Rihaan competed in both the relays, Aan had taken part in the mixed relay, but was swapped by Looth for the freestyle relay.
The mixed relay event saw Maldives team improve on the national best timing by 9.07 seconds. The Freestyle record saw an improvement of 03.57 seconds.
