Students win big at swimming championships

CANA Zone III Championships 

The CANA Zone III Swimming Championships were held at Kasarani, Moi Aquatic Centre and a total of nine countries competed at the event: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, Burundi, Sudan, Djibouti and Malawi.

Five Academy students were part of the 36-member Kenyan National Team, which was divided into Team A (only Kenyan citizens, scoring team) and Team B (Kenya citizens and residents, non scoring team). Majority of the Academy students were part of Team A, which won an Overall Trophy with a total of 2,447.50 points ahead of the other eight teams.  

Collecting a total of six medals, Academy alumnus, Kirunda Kunyiha (Class of 2019), was the male captain of the team. Upon graduating from the Academy, Kirunda has taken a gap year from academics to focus on competitive swimming. 

Below is a list of the swimmers who won medals at the competition:

Joshua Masakha (Year 7) won 8 medals.

Sabbah Leunoto (Year 7) won 6 medals.

Ivan Hart (Year 8) won 13 medals.

Saloni Patel (Diploma Programme 1) won 2 medals. 

Kirunda Kunyiha (Class of 2019) won 6 medals. 

Ivan Hart, who won the most number of gold medals, expressed that he enjoyed competing, despite all the difficulties, and celebrated the overall team victory.  “The competition was tough, especially strong competitors in my age group (who) were from Zambia and Uganda,” Ivan said. “Kenya did not have a big team — only 28 scoring swimmers — but we took an Overall Trophy, which makes me very proud. It was a team effort and every swimmer contributed.” Ivan was also conferred with the award of the Overall Victor in the 13—14 year age group.

Academy students at the championships were not limited to just Kenyan nationals. Aheer Chatterjee (DP1) competed in the non-scoring Kenya team and Daryl Kyabayinze, (Year 10) participated as part of the Ugandan National Team.

Open Water Championships 

Two Academy students participated and won accolades at the Open Water Championships which were held at the Waterfront in Karen, Nairobi.  

Aheer Chatterjee won a bronze medal in the 15 and over category and Ivan Hart won a gold medal in the 14 and under category. 

Ivan, who swam at this meet for the first time, said he enjoyed the challenge  “..although the water was cold and the day was grey. I would like to thank my coach, Coach Malik, for preparing me, and Coach Matt and Coach Slav for their support as team coaches.”