Ten Namibian swimmers left a deep impression at the Northern Tigers Provincial Swimming Championships, held in Pretoriaâ??s Hillcrest Swimming Pool on December 8, swimming past heats into 22 finals and winning seven gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal.
This despite the fact that our swimmers faced fierce competition from South Africaâ??s national and Olympic squad members such as Suzaan van Biljon, Cameron van den Burg, William Diering and Gerhard Zandberg.
Two finals for Siedentopf
Tamara Siedentopf (13) swam into finals for both the 50m and 200m breaststroke finishing 6th and 8th respectively. In the age group 14-15, Maritio van Wyk swam 6 personal best times in all 6 events he competed in.
Dean Spall (14), despite finishing 5th overall in the morning heats for the 200m backstroke was unfortunately not allowed to compete in the finals as he was the 3rd out-of-province swimmer for the finals. His team colleague, Jean Leitner (14) was more fortunate finishing 4th in the 200m backstroke heat he competed in the finals to achieve 6th place.
Ajad van Wyk (15) made it past the heats in two events and swam the 200 individual medley, final finishing 7th and 100m butterfly, finishing 8th.
Three medals for McDonald
Tristan McDonald (15) proved that he would have been a medal contender at the Junior African Championships scheduled to take place last week in Cairo, but which was postponed at short notice by the Egyptian Swimming Federation. McDonald finished amongst the top eight in the 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke. In the finals he pulled out all stops once more and won a bronze medal for the 100m backstroke and gold medals for the 400m freestyle and 200m backstroke.
The toughest competition was set for Monique Marais, Joachim Leitner and Max Siedentopf. who had to compete in the â??openâ?? category, despite all three just being 16 years old.
Despite this challenge, Joachim Leitner finished 10th for the 200m backstroke and Monique Marais managed to qualify for the 400m freestyle finals, improving her personal best time by 4.35s to finish 6th overall.
Great race by Max Siedentopf
One of the most exciting races of the championships was produced by Namibiaâ??s fastest 200m breaststroke swimmer, Max Siedentopf when he and South Africaâ??s Junior African Championships swimmer, Mathew Napier-Jameson chased each other over four lengths, leaving six other swimmers far behind in their wake and keeping spectators and officials captivated.
Upon touching, Siedentopf proved that he too would have been a serious medal contender for Namibia at the Junior African Championships, not only having beaten Napier-Jameson, but finishing an astonishing second overall in the heats. Unfortunately due to a lack international experience he could not maintain this position in the Open finals and ended sixth overall.
In the Menâ??s Open 100m breaststroke event, Siedentopfâ??s fiercest competition came from Cameron van der Burg, currently ranked the fastest 100m breaststroke short course swimmer in the world and William Diering, also amongst the worldâ??s top 25 swimmers. Faced with this challenge, Siedentopf swam into the finals in eighth place overall.
Both Tristan McDonald and Max Siedentopf achieved the qualifying times set by Namibia Swimming Union for the 2nd FINA World Youth Championships, taking place in Mexico in July 2008.
Ray, Buck prove their mettle
Another two swimmers who proved their mettle in the Menâ??s Open category were Alex Ray and Rory Buck. Ray made it into the finals for the 100m butterfly event, finishing 6th in a time of 1:00.04 which earned him 640 FINA points. For the 100m freestyle he earned 642 FINA points.
Rory Buck provided the most superb performance of all NASU swimmers at the competition when he clocked in a time of 55.49 for the 100m freestyle, finishing 9th in the heats and earning him an incredible 659 FINA points. He also made it into the finals for the 200m individual medley, finishing 6th overall in a time of 2:19.86.
High accolades for Briedenhann
The highest accolades however went to 11-year old Christine Briedenhann. She truly dominated the pool in her age group leaving everyone in her shadow. Christine who competed in seven events at the competition swam into final races in all seven events.
She received silver medals for the 50m and 100m backstroke and finished in first place in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 50m breaststroke, 50m butterfly and 200m individual medley races to receive gold medals. Her extraordinary performance was of such high standard, that she was awarded one of the highest honours: winning the Best-Out-Of-Province-Female trophy.
The above swimmers are from Namib Swimming Academy and Marlins Swimming Club and they were accompanied by their coach Rory Buck. According to the tour manageress, Dietlind Siedentopf and coach, Rory Buck, the performances by the Namibian swimmers were an eye-opener.