Bandari duo star in opening day of Grand Prix championship

Kunaal Khagram and Juhaina Islam Ali of Bandari Swimming Club won the boys and girls 10 years and over 1,500 metres freestyle events during the inaugural Coast Amateur Swimming Association (CASA) Grand Prix 1 Swimming Championship at Bandari College, Mombasa on Friday.

It’s the first time the Grand Prix championship is being held in the country with CASA set to hold Grand Prix 2 and Grand Prix 3 between March 8-9 and April 26-27 respectively.

In the boys 1500m freestyle event which attracted only three Bandari SC swimmers, 15-year-old Kunaal Khagram improved his personal best time by 33.30 seconds when he clocked 18 minutes 21.65 seconds.

He was followed by his team mates, 15-year-old Stephen Ndegwa who returned 21:57.0 with Soud Hassan taking third place in a time of 23:48.0.

Juhaina won the only event of the day for girls category, the 1500m freestyle, in a time of 20:03.91 which was 26.58 slower than her personal best time of 19:36.93.

Juhaina said she could have improved her time if there were other swimmers taking part. “I had no competition and that’s why I did not improve my time,” she said.

There will be 21 events on the card at the same venue on Saturday in what is expected to be an action-packed contest.

Events to be contested on Saturday are boys and girls 9 years and over 100m breaststroke, 9 years and over 50m backstroke, 10 years and over 200m butterfly, 9 years and over 400m freestyle relay and 9 years and over 200m individual medley.

Others events are boys and girls 50m freestyle, mixed 9 years and over 400 medley relay, girls and boys 9 years and over 200m freestyle.