Haniel Kudwoli will spearhead Kenya’s charge at the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary, next month.
Sarah Mose, Imara Bella Thorpe and Stephen Ndegwa will join him.
Kudwoli, of Otters Swimming Club, has been in fine form, breaking two records at last month’s National Swimming Championships at Bandari Maritime College.
He first surpassed his previous record of 29.45 seconds in the 50m breaststroke, timing a new national record of 29.06.
The 18-year-old’s second moment of glory came in the 100m breaststroke, where he shattered Micah Fernandez’s national best to clock an impressive 1:03.44, etching his name in the annals of Kenyan swimming history.
Fernandez’s time of 1:04.51 was set at the 2014 World Short Course Swimming Championships in Qatar.
In November 2023, Kudwoli broke Jason Dunford’s national record in the 50m short course breaststroke record when he clocked 29.45 at the Invitational Short Course Meet in Dubai.
Dunford’s best of 29.72 stood since 2010.
Kudwoli said it’s an honour to represent the country at the world event.
“I’m delighted I have a chance to represent the country. I have been in fine form and training hard and this is an opportunity to test myself against the best swimmers in the world,” noted Kudwoli.
The Mombasa-based swimmer targets the breaststroke final.
Mose represented Kenya at the 2022 World Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago and is currently on a World Aquatics scholarship in Antibes, France, Bella, who competed at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022, is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, but training in Poland.
Ndegwa, of Bandari Swim Club, makes the list following his outstanding performance at the Mombasa County Swimming Championships in September.
He set a new 100m butterfly course
record of 56.44, erasing Issa Abdalla’s 57.80.
