Jason splashes to gold in the 100m butterfly

Jason Dunford won gold in the men’s 100m butterfly at the 11th Senior Africa Swimming Championships on Tuesday.

The swimmer waved at the crowd before the eight finalists dived in the pool for the medal race.

Despite not winning a medal in the second day of the championship, young Kenyan swimmers used the gala to set new national records.

Swimming in the men’s 50m breaststroke, 15-year old Tory Pragassa set a new national junior record when he was timed at 32.10 seconds.

In women’s 400 Individual Medley, Emily Muteti also set a new Open Junior and Under-14 record in a time of five minutes 40;49 seconds.

“I may not have won a medal here, but I’m happy to have set a new national junior record,” Muteti said.

Started strongly

But it was the 25-year old Dunford, who lit up the 5,000-seater swimming complex, what with his winning time of 53.16 seconds.

In front of a partisan crowd, expectant for a “better medal” after Dunford’s bronze and silver on Monday, the Kenyan, who holds the African record in both 50m and 100m butterfly races, started strongly and never showed any signs of lagging dangerously in the first half of the race as was with his performance in the 200m freestyle race.

In his specialty, he swam a remarkable final 50m to stretch the lead at the turn and win the race ahead of Osman Marawan of Egypt who finished second in 55.47 amid applauds from the home crowd. Oussama Sahnoune (56.24) of Algeria settled for bronze.

“Given the pool conditions, I’m happy with my performance and to win Kenya’s first gold medal is a big achievement,” Dunford said after he was presented with the medal.

“I have the weight of many Kenyans on my shoulders and I really need to push my self in the remaining three events.”