Kenyan Jason Dunford won his fourth medal, silver from seven swims as the fourth leg of the FINA World cup opened in Moscow,Russia on Wednesday.
Dunford was second in the men’s 50m Butterfly, after silver in Stockholm last week and in Doha the previous week as the Gold he won in the opening World Cup meet in Dubai eluded him yet again.
The Commonwealth games fly champion clocked 23.09 seconds as he tapped the wall about 0.53 seconds behind Australian Matthew Targett who was first yet again in 22.56. Russian Evgeny Korotyshkin won bronze in 23.12.Target was the winner last weekend in Stockholm.
Dunford’s time on Wednesday was way slower than the 22.99 from Stockholm or the Doha time of 22.87 and well under his winning time in the opening round at Dubai of 22.77, seemingly slowed by the back to back swims and air travels.
South African Roland Schoeman’s 22.34 winning time in Doha is still the leading time in the circuit.
Dunford however improved from his slowed 23.58 qualifying time that saw him top heat four earlier in the day and ranked him behind the Australian and the Russian going to the final.
So far Dunford has earned $4500(Ksh.380, 000) from the FINA world cup course circuit. The overall winners of the eight-meet series for both the men and women will win $100,000(Ksh. 8.5m) each when the series comes to a close next month in Singapore.
Winners take home $1500(Ksh.127 000), second place wins $1000( 85 000)and third place 500(Ksh.42 000).
On Thursday Dunford returns to pool craving for the medal that has eluded him in the 100m fly after his near miss last week.
He finished fourth in the longer event in Sweden after failing to challenge for medals at the Gulf swims.
Evelyn Watta
© All rights reserved
