TEN years ago, a six-year-old boy looked on anxiously from the stands at the Kuwait National Swimming Championships.

His father Ali Althuwaini trailed the field at the turn of the 100 metres freestyle final, and all Abdullah could do was pray for a miracle. Ali, from dead last, overtook one, then two, and finally all of the competitors.

For the young Abdullah Althuwaini, it was a defining moment. Currently competing at the Asian Youth Games (AYG), the 16-year-old swimmer said: 'I was so excited when I saw him fight back and win in the final 50 metres.'

Yet following in daddy's footsteps was not enough for Abdullah. He wanted to be more than a national champion.

At just 16, he has already achieved this. Abdullah, a national champion in the backstroke, has won gold medals in the 100m and 200m backstroke - the former being Kuwait's first AYG gold.

He also set national records - with times of 56.71sec and 2min 04.99sec - bettering his dad, who never held one.

The timings would have been good enough for fifth place in the two respective events at the 2006 Asian Games.

The road to AYG gold started eight years ago, when his father introduced him to swimming at the Yarmouk Club.

Naturally, with Ali being a freestyle specialist, that was the first stroke Abdullah picked up. But he switched to the backstroke when he turned 10, simply because he 'could do better at that'.

Even so, he remains strong in the former, and is a contender for a medal in the 50m backstroke, and 100m freestyle, which will be contested today.

His life now resolves around swimming - training twice a day, four hours daily, while attending school.

However, Abdullah was not always so disciplined. He recalled: 'Sometimes, I would not want to go for training and my parents would have to force me.'

Today, he is certainly appreciative of their dedication, especially that of his policeman father, who would faithfully accompany him to afternoon training sessions after working the morning shift.

Their efforts seem wisely invested, what with coach Baltar Jose Fernando saying: 'His height (1.82 metres) is an advantage, as are his long arms and big feet.

'While he has a long way to go, he definitely has the potential to be a top swimmer in the world.'

Potential is something Abdullah's teammates at the AYG also have. For apart from his golds, Kuwait have won a silver (Qali Salman, 50m butterfly) and three bronzes courtesy of Yousef Alaskari (100m, 200m butterfly) and Jaafar Bouland (400m freestyle).

The trio are based with the Davie Nadadores Swim Team in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as part of a programme where the Kuwait Swimming Association sends its national swimmers to the United States. No Kuwaiti swimmer has won an Asian Games gold medal but with this crop of youngsters, the prospects look bright.

Said Carol Capitani, assistant head coach of the Singapore Swimming Association's High Performance Team: 'The Kuwaiti kids are in an area which is a hotbed for swimming. Florida has one of the top five swimming meets, so they will be racing really fast swimmers.'

Abdullah is not part of the US-based programme, but said: 'If I put my mind to it, I can do whatever I want. It doesn't mean that I will be a worse swimmer if I don't train in the US.'

Indeed, with such single-minded determination, it is no wonder his father has set him the challenge of winning a medal at the Olympics.

Indeed, if he does so, he will have achieved another first for his country.