New records set at Coast Age Group and Relay event

By Ernest Ndunda

Five more national records were shattered during the weekend Coast Age Group and Relay Championships, at the weekend at Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa.

Hamdan Bayusuf and Shivraj Vaghela broke and set two national records each to their credit.

Hamdan of Mombasa Academy broke a 17-year-old record in the All-comers 100m Backstroke record.

Anthony Lihalakha in Nairobi, set the record of 1.02.80 on June 4, 1994 before Hamdan, who is coached by Fakry Mansoor, smashed it with a new time of 1:02.50 seconds.

Hamdan broke the all comers record set by his long time friend David Dunford on October 25, 2003 in 50m backstroke of 29.65 to register a new time of 28.44 seconds.

Shivraj Vaghela of Aga Khan Academy broke his own national record in the 12-13 years 100m Butterfly which he set last year. The old record stood at 1.09.57 before erasing it with a new record of 1.05.95.

Vaghela was it again to erase Deeyn Shah’s record he set on February 6 last year in boys’ 12/13 50m backstroke of 32.38. The new record stands at 31.75.

Tory Pragassa of Bandari Swimming Club who broke the junior record and the 15-year-old record in the 200m Breaststroke broke the fifth national record.

The old record of 12-year-old was 2.42.18 held by Kim Jin Woo set on October 4, 1998. Pragassa’s new record stands at 2.39.50.

The three swimmers dominated most of the events. Hamdan also won the boys’ 16 and over 200m free style in 2.10.84 with Mwangi Githae of Mombasa Aquatic Club settling for the second slot in 2.14.97.

Ham Serunjogi of Aga Khan Academy timed 2.24.47 for the third position. Vaghela won the boys’ 12/13 50m breastroke in 35.84. Khalid Bakari and Leslie Mwandawiro, both of Aga Khan Academy, clocked 39.56 and 42.13 respectively.

Pragassa won the boys 14/15 50m breastroke in 33.66. Alexander Onyango of Bandari swim Club and Nawfal Almaawy of Oshwal Academy clocked 36.83 and 39.00 in that order.