EDMONTON - There’s a moment of resistance when Kimani Maina pushes off from the lip of the pool, cuts through the liquid, and finds the rhythm that may one day propel him to greatness.

The passion for swimming is evident in the 14-year-old’s voice, a rising star living in Edmonton and speaking Saturday over a crackling, tenuous line from Kenya.

“It’s just you and the water,” Maina said. “You’re just gliding, you push into the water, and no machine is helping you.”

For the past three years, the Kenyan swimmer pushed himself to slash fractions of seconds away from evolving personal bests. Eight times a week, the grade nine Parkview Junior High student hits NAIT’s 50-metre swimming pool.

Last season, he missed only two practices. He was sick and his coach told him he’d never get better if he kept exercising.

That perseverance was rewarded last week after Maina returned to his home country for the junior national Age-Group and Open Swimming Championship in the coastal Kenyan city of Mombasa. He broke national records for his age group in five of eight events, hitting personal bests in the other three races.

Read more, check out the article in the Edmonton Journal:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Kenyan+makes+waves+Edmonton/5664736/story.html?cid=megadrop_story

Kimani Maina, centre, Age Group & Open Swimming Championships Mobasa, Kenya