Jonay Briedenhann of the Namibia Swimming Academy continued her great form of late when she won two medals at the Kwazulu Championships.
Competing against some of the top Age Group swimmers of South Africa, she won a silver medal in the 200m backstroke for Girls 15/16 to better the Namibian Age Group record as well as Monica Dahl?s decade-old Open record. Dahl?s record stood at 2:31:45, and Briedenhann?s new record now stands at 2:29:90.
Jonay also won a bronze medal in the 200m Individual Medley in another Namibian Age group record time.
Jonay participated in a total of 9 events, and reached the finals of 8 of these. She improved 5 personal best times and broke 3 Age Group records as well as 1 Namibian Open record. Jonay also reached the qualifying criteria for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia for the third time.
Byron breaks 7 records
Jonay?s 14-year-old brother, Byron strained his ankle at the last training session just before leaving for South Africa, but nevertheless managed to pull through with some great performances.
He bettered 5 personal best times and made 5 finals at the tournament. He broke a total of 7 Namibian age-group records in the category Boys 14-15 Years. Byron broke the longstanding record of Ricardo Erenstein in the 200m IM, lowering the former time of 2:25.15 to 2:24.81.
The other records include his own records in the 200m Butterfly, 200m Backstroke (prelims and finals), 400m IM and the 100m Butterfly (prelims and finals). Byron will have other attempts at these records, as he is only 14 now.
One record for Christine
As if that was not enough, little sister Christine Briedenhann also excelled at the Kwazulu Championships.
At 9-years-old she was the youngest swimmer at the gala, but she reached the finals of 4 of the 10 events she participated in. Competing in the 11-and-Under category, she broke one Namibian age-group record in the 100m Backstroke, bettering the previous time of 1:26.84 to a remarkable 1:24.76.
Christine also came very close to Monica Dahl?s 100-meter Freestyle record (for Girls 9-10 Years) of 1:14:07, when she finished the race in 1:14:08. She improved 9 out of 10 personal best times.
McDonald shines in Polokwane
Meanwhile, 13-year-old Tristan McDonald excelled at the NTS Championships in Polokwane, South Africa, where he won three bronze medals.
The 13-year-old from the Namibia Swimming Academy competed in 8 events and improved upon all of his times.
He made the finals for all these events and managed to medal in three: Bronze for the 200m Freestyle and 200m Individual Medley and silver in the 400m Freestyle.
This was a great experience for Tristan, preparing him for fierce competition in March, where he intends to participate at the SA Telkom Prestige Championships in East London.