Jason Dunford, the first Kenyan to make Olympic and world championship swimming finals, has joined the ranks of what is building into the fastest male butterfly squad in the world in a move to the ADN Swim Project in Italy.
Dunford, 23, will endure his first training camp alongside Milorad Cavic, Evgeny Korotyshkin and Peter Mankoc at Eindhoven for four days later this month, leading into the Amsterdam Cup from March 25-28 (They then might all group together and lobby FINA to add butterfly relays to the race slate and waive a few rules on mixed nationality quartets...). Eindhoven is home to the Pieter Van Den Hoogenband pool, base of coach Jacco Verhaeren and the Dutch performance HQ.
Coach Andrea Di Nino told SwimNews: "We are proud of his decision to move to Europe and sure that our group will be useful to help Jason to improve his performance."
In that kind of company, doubtless there's more to come from the Kenyan pioneer.
Dunford, schooled for some of his formative years at Marlborough College in England will then head back to Stanford University in the States to complete his studies (he graduated in 2009 with BSc degree in Human biology, but is reading for a masters in Earth System) before returning to Europe and the ADN team full time at the start of the northern summer.
His father, Martin Dunford, is the Chairman of the Tamarind Group, which owns the famous Carnivore Restaurant, once voted among the world's top 50 restaurants by a specialist magazine, and also the vice-chairman of the Kenya Swimming Federation and the patron of the Nairobi Amateur Swimming Association. Mum is Geraldine, granddaughter to Abraham Block, the founder of Block Hotels, and a marketing executive.
Dunford came to prominence when he made the final of the 100m butterfly at the 2007 world champs in Melbourne, clocking an African record of 51.85 in a swim-off for the 8th spot with Commonwealth champion, Australia-based Ryan Pini of Papua New Guinea. The following year, Dunford was the first Kenyan swimmer ever to race at the Olympic Games by virtue of having met a world-class qualifying time. Dunford finished fifth in the 100m 'fly final 0.35sec away from a medal. In 2009, he became Universiade 100m 'fly champ and finished sixth in the 50 and 100m finals at the world champs in Rome.
Dunford's elder brother, Robert, is a graduate of the London School of Economics, where he was captain of the rugby club. The younger brother, David, also swims for Kenya, reaching Commonwealth and world short-course finals in 2006 to earn the award for Kenya's most promising athlete. He was a semi-finalist in the 50m free at Rome 2009 - and was one of these heroes, when George Bovell, of Gary Hall's Race Club, found his position exposed in a world of shiny chaos.
