Kenya’s best chances for a historic World championship swimming medal went up in smoke as Jason Dunford missed the final of the 50m fly on Friday, the third day on Friday in Istanbul, Turkey.
Dunford a leading performer in the dash with three golds and three silver medals in the FINA World Cup topped his heat in 23.07 seconds which ranked him seventh behind Brazilian Nicholas Santos, who broke the championship record with a smooth 22.40.
Seasoned Kenyan swimmer Kenyan Ramadhan Vyombo, 28, had a slow swim ranking 62nd of the 86 entries in 26.08 at the 11th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m).
In the semi finals, Dunford was quickly into the lead at the first lap before Santos unbeaten surge as he tapped the wall first improving his record to 22.23.
The Kenyan probably weighed down by his marathon swims at World cup faded again to sixth finishing a 1.19 seconds behind in sixth returning 23.42.
He is entered in two other events at the worlds the freestyle and medley.
Teenagers Talisa Lanoe and Anita Field were also in action in the women’s 200m backstroke heats at the Sinan Erden Dome pool in their debut world short course event. Lanoe hang on to finish in 2:22.36 while Field clocked 2:36.27.
Ryan Lochte was again the standout performer breaking his own world record on his way to defending his 200m individual medley world title.
He finished in 1 minute, 49.63 seconds en route to a fourth consecutive gold medal in the discipline at Sinan Erdem Arena.
Lochte is only the second man to achieve that feat in world short course championship history after Great Britain’s James Hickman, who won the 200m butterfly five times between 1997 and 2004.
Evelyn Watta
© All rights reserved
