Kenyan athlete Kirunda Kunyiha vying for Olympics

Kirunda Kunyiha (KK), will have what we call an exclusive birthday this year, when reaching 20 April 20.

His parents are both professionals, dedicated to family, helping others, and, work ethics. This makes them Kirunda's most treasured mentors on earth.

He really does not have any other sporting stars or icons that have influenced his own extraordinary inner drive.

School was based at the Aga Khan Academy right up to secondary where he achieved only highest scores available.

Thereafter, it was the sister AKA alma mater in Mombasa that drew his attention, where he boarded while doing the IB Diploma programme. Naturally, he was presented with the Award of Excellence.

This means he has qualified to enter Purdue University in the United States come August, planning to study Mechanical Engineering - a significantly arresting juncture, of which there should be plenty more to digest, God willing.

Swimming has been Kirunda's chosen past-time since the age of six when realising he had a particular flair for it.

Bitten by the competitive bug during his teens, after experimenting with basketball and football, Kirunda scaled the dizzy ladder of South African Championships, immediately attaining two golds and a silver medal.

Benefits of swimming are not only confined to physicality, but as an agent of mind-relief in every sense of the phrase.

Why not stretch his skills much further? Good idea, although training is vigorously regimented to twice daily.

Nine hefty sessions in the pool complemented with gym boosters, obvious accompaniments of sacrifice, and cautionary dietary habits - are part of the territory.

Kirunda has been forced to the limits of his own exotic talent. He is a bright young man, meticulously dressed, with no mistaking the promise he distils for a new generation of Kenyan swimmers.

He absolutely has corporeal precocity on his side. There is a vacancy in this sport that Kirunda is willing to fill with plucky fortitude.

He gleans plenty of objectives from televised tournaments - never yielding on learning even the most diminutive of tips.

Hobbies for Kirunda are quite simple - reading, making Youtube videos, watching well-directed action movies such as Avengers, Endgame, Parabellum, and, Joker.

He is currently enjoying The Alchemist book, by Paulo Coelho, which is a philosophical look on life, teaching us that when a person really desires something, the whole universe will conspire to help realise ardent aspirations. It pours positivity into achieving targets.

An Alchemist is literally a King of Wisdom, which says plenty about our Kirunda.

As a strict Christian, he is also an animal lover, always maintaining a code of having at least two homely dogs.

Kirunda is preparing for imminent Olympic Trials, which if he is not completely confident about, will concentrate on the next edition. His brother does not swing with sports at all, preferring the arts.

Kirunda reflects on an unusually scary moment that shook him up real good.

As an Uber passenger, during their strike, there was total hostility towards those who chose to work.

Upon being caught, there would be a nasty fight and automatic destruction of cars.

It may sound like a typical news item, but these thugs become very aggressive, animated, careless, intimidating, and, somewhat terrifying.

Luckily after being chased for a couple of blocks, the thugs settled down, but definitely not a good feeling.