Jason Dunford’s notable post Olympics form continued as he tapped the wall first for the Gold medal in the 50m Butterfly on Tuesday in Tokyo, barely three days after an imposing victory in China in the FINA/ARENA swimming World cup series.
The Kenyan could have dipped below 23 seconds if he hadn’t slowed slightly in the last 20m after his customary swift start before the turn, but his efforts were still the best of the Japanese dominated field as touched home in 23.03 ahead of Chinese Qibin Zhang who clocked 23.12. Japanese Hara Syota was third in 23.22.
Dunford had warmed up for the final ranking top of the heats in 23.18. His winning time, for his third Gold out of six attempts which has seen him settle for Silver in Doha, Stockholm and Moscow, the was the second fastest this season following his 22.77 seconds win in Dubai.
Next up will be the 100m on Wednesday where he hopes to go one up better than the bronze he won in Beijing, which was his first medal in the series in the longer swim.
After Tokyo, the 26 year old who skipped the series meeting in Berlin will head to Singapore, as he looks to the World short course championships in December.
Evelyn Watta
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