SWIMMING: The Dunford brothers arrive in Beijing

The Dunford brothers, Jason (right) and David arrive at the Beijing International Airport from San Francisco where they have been training. The two will represent Kenya in swimming. Photo/MOHAMMED AMIN

I admire the way the Dunford brothers strut their stuff. Not even the most grandiose of stages will offer them any fright.

And it doesn’t seem to matter to them who is hogging all the headlines. Only one thing remains of paramount importance to the Kenyan swimmers. Focus!

These attributes were quite evident on Monday when Jason and David arrived at the Beijing International Airport on a United Airlines flight from San Franscisco, US, after completing their training programme for the Beijing Olympics’ swimming competition that starts this Saturday.

Stampede

Just as Jason fielded questions from Kenyan journalists with David by his side, there was a stampede close by as a certain Rafael Nadal wheeled his luggage through the arrivals lounge at this imposing airport towards the Olympic Family bus terminus.

Jason glanced across and immediately turned back and continued with his interview. “As I was saying, our preparations went on quite well,” the star swimmer offered as Nadal disappeared in the background with his trolley, a battery of journalists in tow.

He is on the verge of taking over from Swiss sensation Roger Federer as the undisputed world number one tennis player and is definitely one of the star attractions at the Beijing Olympics.

And as the Dunfords lay bare their training regime, another big star is whisked away from the glare of the cameras. This time, it’s American multiple Olympic gold medal winning swimmer, “superfish” Michael Phelps and like Nadal and the Dunfords, is headed for the Olympic Village.

Phelps won six gold and two bronze medals at the last Olympics in Athens four years ago and has made it no secret that he will be going for eight medals – all gold – at this year’s Games.

Game plan

“The Olympics are big but my game plan is to take each step at a time,” said Jason, the most successful male athlete at last year’s All Africa Games in Algiers with three gold medals (50m, 100m and 200m butterfly), two silver (50m freestyle, 100m backstroke) and three bronze (50m backstroke, 100m and 200m freestyle).

He will be competing in the 100 metres freestyle and 100 metres butterfly at the Olympics and knows the weight of a nation’s expectations rests on his shoulders for a medal outside the traditional athletics hunting ground.

He holds the Africa record in the 100m butterfly (51.85 seconds) set at last year’s World Championships in Melbourne but, Jason, Kenya’s sportsman of the Year in 2007, is quick to deflect the attention that rides in tandem with his success: “People have to understand that the All Africa Games and the Olympics are two very different competitions.