Swimming

Christiaan Lamprecht and Christine Briedenhann of Namib Swimming Academy were crowned the senior Victor and Victrix Ludorum champions at the Namibia National Swimming Championships which came to an end on Sunday.

The 16-year-old Lamprecht won the award with a total of 3 129 FINA points for six events.

Macquelin Winkler came second with 2 976 points and Florian Hentzen of Dolphins third with 2 926 FINA points.

The race for the top club at the National Swimming Championships heated up on Friday as Dolphins closed the gap on the Namib Swimming Academy.

At the end of the second session, NSA was still the overall leader with 20 gold medals and a total of 41 medals, but Dolphins were just behind with 17 gold medals and a total of 55 medals.

There were once again no records, but some good times were recorded, while swimmers from the visiting Mpumalanga team also put in some good performances.

The Namibia National Swimming Championships started in Windhoek on Thursday, with swimmers from Windhoek, Swakopmund and Oranjemund competing.

No records were established on the opening day, but there were some good performances in the various age groups.

Kiara Schatz of Namib Swimming Academy won the Girls 11-12 50m butterfly in a time of 32,64 seconds which was close to Sonja Adelaar’s national record of 31,42 that she established at the African Junior Championships in Nigeria last December.

A statement by Namibia Swimming Union president Klaus Laborn that Namibian swimmers will not qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games has come under fire from various quarters.

Laborn had earlier told Namibia Sport that Namibian swimmers won’t qualify for the Olympics because there was not enough time left, while they were too far off the qualifying times.

The Namibian Swimming Union (NASU) will have their National Swimming Championships from 26 to 29 January at the Olympia Swimming Pool in Windhoek.

Riaan Lamprecht from NASU said most of the country’s top swimmers would participate at the three-day competition.

“The only swimmers who will not be here are Quinton Delie, Daniella Lindemeier, JP Engelbrecht and Micaela Cloete,” Lamprecht said.

Delie, Lindemeier and Engelbrecht are all based at the University of Pretoria High Performance Centre, while Cloete is based in Cape Town.

There will be no Namibian swimmers at the London 2012 Olympics according to the Namibia Swimming Union (NASU) president, Klaus Laborn.

“We do not have any swimmers that have qualified to swim at the Olympics so far, I don’t think we will have swimmers qualifying because the Namibian swimmers are too far away from the qualifying times,” Laborn said.

“The spaces are limited and our swimmers are not close to making the grade. We are working on getting there in four years time,” he added.

Laborn said that his goal was to take back swimming to the days it was successful.

Seven time Olympic medallist and former American swimmer Aaron Peirsol will be in Namibia at the invitation of the Namibian Swimming Union (NASU).

Peirsol will give a motivational speech at an event where former South African Olympic champion, Ryk Neethling will also speak.

NASU president, Klaus Laborn will give the opening address.