Kenya National Beach Lifesaving Competition

THE INAUGURAL NATIONAL BEACH LIFESAVING COMPETITION IN KENYA APRIL 2012

By Job Kania –President (Kenya Lifesaving Federation)

The Kenya lifesaving federation Mombasa branch organised the first national beach lifesaving competition on the Kenyan coast on Saturday April 14th 2012 at the Nyali beach.

This competition attracted teams from KLF Nairobi branch, Loreto convent Mombasa school, and mission to sea men, Jomo Kenyatta public beach.

Close to 200 participants made a debut in this competition, with the 10/11 age group recording the highest number of athletes. Loreto Convent Mombasa had brought a large team, thank to their coach Mr. Albert Oketch.

The event was a great success put in consideration that this was held for the first in Kenya and most of the organizers have never witness such competitions. The KLF Mombasa branch chairman Babuu Muoki and his committee of Jackson,Caleb,John,Omar Timimi managed to secure most of equipments needed for the events,they secured surf boards ,rescue tube,ski,rescue boat,scuba gears, bouys,P.A and the venue.special thanks to babuu mouki and his collegues who worked tireless in pre event to post event.

The competition kicked off with 9&under board race where Natasha terry of MTS won the race at 3:06 girls and Aaron Salim of Loreto won in boys race at 1:45.for the 10-11 yrs girls prudence Muthoni of MTS won while Solomon Ndinda of MTS won in boys race.12-13 girls Zulf Ayub of Loreto won as Bruno Msafiri of Loreto won in boys race. In the 16&over board race Sayyid Mohammed won as Tyrah Gandani won for the girls.

Rescue tube rescue event was second in the program which saw good performance from the athletes like Ishmail Mahamad and Hamisi Mwishee in the 16&0ver winning their race with superb performances. Surf race followed next recording a good number of athletes where peter Kukenyo of Loreto Mombasa came first in 10-11 yrs boys while Cindy Kolenyo of Loreto came first in girls surf race, Jerome Waudo and Georgina Muteti both of Loreto came first in 12-13 yrs.

After oceanman event, we took one hour lunch break and resume with beach sprint event then beach relay and finally the beach flag. Surf ski event was omitted as there were few paddle/oar for the ski events.

Our special thanks goes to the Nyali international beach hotel for hosting the venue, Kenya diver for the scuba gears, bouys,rescue boat,the Kenya red cross- Mombasa branch for providing first aid, Jomo Kenyatta public beach for the surf board, rescue tubes and ski, Kenya wildlife society- Bamburi branch. All the participants, coaches and parents.

I personal enjoyed the events and did not expect that high level organization from our Mombasa branch having all required equipments in place; with the conclusion of the event we made our tentative selection of athlete -beach events for the world lifesaving championship, the rescue 2012 in Adelaide, South Australia. We hope to make final selection for the rescue 2012 in June national lifesaving championship.

We are looking forward for another beach lifesaving event to be organized in June 2012 by the KLF Mombasa branch.