Brojen Das was the first Asian to swim across the English Channel. He was born on 9th December 1927 in Kuchiamora village of Bikrampur, Munshiganj, in East Pakistan (Bangladesh). He was the son of the late Harendra Kumar Das and did his primary education in his native village. He completed his matriculation from the KL Jubilee High School Dhaka in 1946, and later he joined Vidyasagar College, Calcutta (now Kolkata) and passed his Intermediate and Graduation.
BROJEN DAS
Born on 9th December 1927
Died on 1st June 1998
Swimming Champion
Brojen was a proficient and champion swimmer from his childhood. The turbulent water of river Ganga (Buriganga) was his training ground. His swimming ability motivated the East Pakistan Sports Federation to introduce an annual swimming competition in Dhaka. The inaugural competition took place in 1953, where he made a complete sweep of freestyle events by winning 100 m, 200 m, 400 m and 1500 m freestyle events.
In 1955, he became Pakistan’s national champion in 100 and 200-meter freestyle. He had even made it to Pakistan’s swimming squad for the 1956 Olympics but an injured arm suffered in an accident, which ruled out his entry.
In 1958, his swimming career took a new turn when he received an invitation to take part in the English Channel Swimming Competition. He took up the challenge to become the first person from Asia to swim across the channel. Swimming the ‘English Channel’ was quite a risky affair in the middle of the 1950s. Because of bad weather, many swimmers were unable to complete the crossing. Moreover, the water temperature of the Channel was very cold. However, Brojen made up his mind to go to the competition. He then made the Sitalakhya and most turbulent part of the lower Megna River his training field. Finally, he swam from Narayanganj to Chandpur, a distance of about 46 miles. He also accomplished with credit a non-stop 48 hours swimming, covering approx.60 miles in Dhaka swimming pool.
Prior to the English Channel competition, he also successfully completed the Mediterranean swimming competition from Capri to Naples. The competition gave him added confidence and an opportunity to acclimatize himself to the Oceanic waters. He arrived in England on June 1958 for the Billy Butlin Channel Swimming Competition. Swimmers from 23 countries joined the contest and he was the only contestant from a South Asian country. The swimming began at midnight on 18 August 1958 and it came to a close in the afternoon of the next day. Fatigue led many to withdraw from the competition on the way, but undaunted Brojen continued with the strongest determination and joined the ranks of the heroes crossing the Channel. He not only secured the first position in the competition but also became the first Asian to cross the English Channel.
In 1959, he completed his record Channel crossing in less than a month after swimming from Dover to Cape Griz Nez in a little less than 14 hours. He also swam the channel from France to England in 13 hours & 53 minutes. It was his third crossing of the channel and he became the first man to make three successful long distances swimming.
In 1960, his fourth Channel swim had dragged him down to the bottom of the ladder, which took 14 hours and 44 minutes for his France to England swim.
In 1961, he earned glory and fame when he created World records in channel swimming to put his name in the Guinness Book of World Records. He swam from France to England in a record time of 10 hours 35 minutes clipping 15 minutes off the old record set by an Egyptian Hasan Abdul Rahim. Not only he crosses the English Channel in record time, but he also crossed it six times and created two world records on the same day.
After having achieved every possible distinction, he retired from the competitive arena in 1961. Thereafter he coached and trained swimmers both at home and abroad. Many aspiring Channel swimmers, in particular, benefited from his experiences.
He visited the USA in 1964 as an advisor to the USA Olympic swimming team for the Olympics held in Tokyo and during his one-month stay he visited different training centres in various states and lectured the prospective swimmers of America for the Tokyo Olympics. He also had the privilege to meet the President of the USA, Lyndon B. Johnson.
In 1990, during the South Asian Games, he was invited to Pakistan as an official guest. And he presented medals to the position winners in some of the swimming competitions.
In June 1997 he was detected to have cancer in June 1997. However, it took a few months for pathologists in Kolkata and Mumbai to come to a conclusion about the exact nature of cancer. It was finally diagnosed as Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. His treatment started with chemotherapy. However, the first chemotherapy had a severe adverse side effect, which resulted in massive pleural effusion. No further chemo was possible and he was put on palliative care.
He died on 1st June 1998 in Calcutta (India). The Funeral of celebrated swimmer Brojen Das was held at the city’s Postagola cremation site in Dhaka on 3rd June 1998. His body was flown in here by Indian Airlines to Dhaka where State Minister for Information Prof. Adu Sayeed, State Minister for Youth, Sports and Cultural affairs Obaidul Quader and BSF President Rear Admiral Mohammad Nurul Islam received his body at the airport. Later, two ministers conveyed the condolence messages of President Shahabuddin Ahmed and Prime Minister Sheik Hasina to the wife of the late Brojen Das, who also came from Calcutta by the same flight. The body was then taken to Mirpur National swimming Complex and kept there for a few minutes. President of the Swimming Federation along with the officials, organizers, swimmer and other sportsmen paid homage to the great swimmer.
