Records shattered as swimmers chase African Qualifying times

By Oscar Pilipili

About two years ago today, Kenyan swimming fraternity woke up to a rude shock with news of Achieng’ Ajulu-Bushell, whom they proudly considered their brightest female athlete, deciding to shift allegiance to Britain.

The move diminished Kenya’s chances of sending a female swimmer to forthcoming London Olympic Games since Ajulu-Bushell’s performance in major international competitions was outstanding.

But Kenyans need to worry no more as there are promising talents that need be nurtured and groomed for the future.

Such swimmers include Anita Field of Braeburn School and Edward Ilako who are electrifying swimming pools with powerful strokes.

Field and Ilako were unstoppable during the Nairobi Swimming Association (NASA) triple ‘A’ gala where they shattered several meet records during the event at Aga Khan High School on Sunday.

NASA publicity secretary Paul Oduor confirmed that Anita, who is a sport scholarship student at Braeburn, had set three new meet records, two of them previously held by Sylvia Brunlehner, on day one of the event.

gala competitive

Oduor said: "The gala is very competitive and we therefore expect more records to tumble at the end of the show."

She clocked 33.69sec in girls’ 12-13 years 50m backstroke to erase Brunlehner’s mark of 33.69.

Anita then successful attacked Brunlehner’s 100m backstroke record time of 1:13.14 after she finished the event in new time of 1:12.99.

She went on to win 100m individual medley race in a time of 1:13.16 and erase the old mark of 1:16.02 until Sunday held by Martha Opiyo.

Ilako had a field day winning boys’ 16-17 age group 50m butterfly in record time of 28-12. Nigel Nindo set the old mark of 28-26 last year.

Nindo, however, gained another record when he won boys’ over-18 years 50m butterfly in 28.81 which was better than Joseph Kimani’s old time of 28.98.

Akinyi Ogot of Rosslyn bettered her time in girls’ over-13 200m breaststroke when she returned 3:05.43 which surpassed her previous mark of 3:17.26.