Feni bags swimming gold at Special Olympics World Games

Uganda’s Larry Feni clocked 31.97 to win gold in the 50m breaststroke race as the Special Olympics World Games raged on in Berlin, Germany on Tuesday.

Although it was short of his personal best of 30 seconds over the stroke distance, the time was just enough to beat his nearest opponents; Hungary’s Mate Varga (37.33) and Ukraine’s Andrii Karasychenko (39.06) who settled for silver and bronze respectively.

Swimming in lane four in the MA02 category, Feni who has a speech and hearing impairment was also better than the three other finalists; Australia’s Jonathan Miszczak, Abdul Raham Syed Mohamed from Bharat and Belgium’s Elias Hendrickx, who clocked 39.28, 39.39 and 40.11 respectively.

“Feni is more than ready this time because he was discovered by the Special Olympics team and they grew him to who he is. Later on he was identified by the Uganda Swimming Federation under the Silverfin Academy.

“We thank God that he is on the team though the preparations have not been easy in terms of logistics; it has been a hectic time for us but we managed to push through.

“His swimming schedule has been quite a challenge because it was almost the whole day, and everything required for him to be able to make it in this competition was not easy, but we have made it and all we are waiting for are the medals to come through,” Gabriella Patience Karungi said before the team left.

He is part of a 30-man Ugandan team of different athletes including two other swimmers that are representing Uganda at the games.

The athletes left with each promising ‘to be brave in the attempt’. Uganda has representation in volleyball, athletics, swimming, football, and table tennis.