Swimming

Namibian swimmers excelled at the CANA Zone 3 and 4 Championships in Zambia last week, coming second overall in the medal count and breaking 17 championship records.

Zanre Oberholzer and Nicolai Flemming also scooped the prestigious Victrix and Victor Ludorum trophies, while Molina Smalley ranked first on the Women’s Individual Scores with 185 points.

The 10th edition of the Confederations of Aquatics Nations Associations (CANA) Zone 3 and 4 Swimming Championship concluded on Sunday, April 28.

Christiaan Lamprecht won a silver medal and Kiah Borg a bronze medal at the South African National Aquatic Championships which recently took place in Port Elizabeth.

Both swimmers competed in the Youth category, with Lamprecht coming second in the Men’s 200m backstroke in a time of 2:15,14, while Borg came third in the Women’s 200m breaststroke in 2:54:24.

The championships were disrupted by a green pool as a result of a broken pump at the Newton Park Swimming Pool in Port Elizabeth, and two and a half days of the competition had to be cancelled.

Namibian swimmers broke a total of 20 records at the NASU Short Course Gala 4 which took place at the NSA pool over the weekend.

The records consisted of 18 Namibian age group records, one NASU age group record and one Namibian Open record.

10-year-old Heleni Stergiadis of Dolphins broke four Namibian age group records in the Women’s 9-10 year age group category.

Seventeen swimmers from Namibia participated in the SA Level 2 Age Group Championships.

This prestigious event was hosted by Western Province Aquatics at the University of Western Cape, Cape Town from March 22 to 25.

The swimmers worked very hard to qualify for this event and over the four days competed against 404 swimmers from 40 South African clubs.

Many fantastic Personal Best times were posted and the swimmers brought home 21 medals - 7 Gold, 6 Silver and 8 Bronze.

Lushano Lamprecht was the overall winner of the annual Pointbreak Open Water Challenge which took place at Oanob Dam outside Rehoboth on Sunday.  

Lamprecht led from the start to finish the 2,1km event in 32 minutes 4 seconds, with Bernard Theron coming second in 32:20 and Jorn Diekmann third in 33:39.

Over 160 swimmers entered the race to battle it out in the 700m or 2,1km race.

Lushano Lamprecht and Toni Roth won the Senior Victor and Victrix Ludorum trophies at the Aquapentathlon gala which took place at the Olympia Swimming Pool on Saturday.

In the Aquapentathlon all the swimmers had to complete five events - the 100m freestyle, 100m breaststroke, 100m backstroke, 100m butterfly and 200m Individual Medley.

The times of all five events are added up and the swimmers with the shortest total times win the trophies in age categories as well as the Senior Victor and Victrix Ludorum awards.

The annual Pointbreak Open Water swim takes place at Lake Oanob Resort near Rehoboth on Sunday.  

Competitors can choose between a 2.1km swim, the longest open water swim in Namibia, or a 700m sprint.

Event organisers, Otb Sport, said there were already over 120 entries. There is over N$15 000 in prizes in the different age categories as well as prizes for top 10 overall in the 2.1km.  

The 700m swim will kick off at 9h30 and the 2.1km at 10h00.

Favorites for the 2.1km swim are 17-year-old, Christiaan Lamprecht and 16-year-old Jean-Paul Burger. 

The Namibia Swimming Union held its fourth gala of the season at the Olympia Pool over the weekend and although no new age group records were established the swimmers still gave some good performances.

A total of 124 swimmers from Windhoek, Swakopmund and Tsumeb participated in the gala and competed in a total of 850 events, with about a quarter of the performances resulting in new personal best times.

Ronan Wantenaar of Namib Swimming Academy gave some fine performances in the Boys 11-12 age group category.

Corne le Roux of Dolphins Swimming Club broke the only record at the Namibia Swimming Union’s Long Course Gala 3 that took place at the Olympia Swimming Pool over the weekend.

The 10-year-old Le Roux set a new record time of 1:28,02 in the Boys 10 and under 100m Butterfly event, to beat the previous record of 1:28,93 that was established by Sascha Rapp in 2009.

A total of 109 swimmers from Windhoek and Swakopmund participated in the gala that was also the first of 2013.

South African triathlete Nico Sterk won the Pupkewitz Jetty Mile in Swakopmund on December 27, with top Namibian swimmer Quinton Delie coming second and up and coming junior swimmer Philip Seidler third.

A total of 150 people participated in the annual holiday event which attracts a wide range of swimmers, from social to South African olympic calibre athletes, ranging between the ages of 5 (Sprint distance) to 71 (Jetty Mile).

The beach front from Tiger Reef Beach Bar to the Mole was lined with supporters and spectators.