Jason Dunford is certainly back in rhythm after a sluggish London Olympic outing, as he picked silver in the 100m fly on Wednesday on the second day of action in Tokyo in 50.73 seconds his second fastest time ever.
Before winning the bronze in Beijing last weekend, the 26-year old had seemingly struggled through the six stops of this year’s World Cup in the 100m fly, but he finally got his stroke right well in time for the Short Course World championships in Turkey.
This is the event that catapulted him to fame at the 2008 Olympics as he briefly held the Olympic record of 51.14.
Series heads to Singapore
Dunford followed up an outstanding gold-medal performance in the 50m on Tuesday with a strong performance in the 100m and looked to have it all wrapped up at the second turn as he led the field at 23.35.
But Chinese Qibin Zhang who placed second in the dash leapfrogged him in the last 25m a pace that possibly altered the overall pace of the event, which he won in 50.53.
Japanese Kazuya Kaneda won the bronze in 50.92. Dunford’s time was just 0.35 seconds slower than his national record of 50.38 from the short course worlds in Dubai in 2010.
Dunford now heads over to Singapore for the season finale next week looking to boost his gold medal haul from the three(50m fly) in Japan, Beijing and Dubai.
After the series, the Kenyan is the only confirmed entrant for the World championships in Turkey this December.
Evelyn Watta
© All rights reserved
