Namibia: 18 Records Broken At Swimming Nationals

A successful Bank Windhoek Namibia National Swimming Championships concluded in Windhoek on Sunday with 18 new records established, while Dolphins ruled the roost in the club competition.

Lushano Lamprecht of Aqua Swimming & Fitness Club broke eight of the 16 individual records in the men's 25-44 year category, while there were also two relay records. He underlined his versatility by setting new records in the freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and individual medley events.

In the freestyle, he set new records of 25,39 seconds in the 50m; 57,88 in the 100m event; and 4:55,03 in the 400m event.

In backstroke he set new records of 29,16 seconds in the 50m and 1:03,31 in the 100m event; and in the butterfly he set new records of 27,27 seconds in the 50m and 1:01,86 in the 100m events.

Lamprecht also set a new 200m individual medley record of 2:37,25 seconds.

Dentie Louw of Swakopmund Swimming Club set two records in the men's 25-44 year category, with a time of 22 minutes 15,06 seconds in the 1 500m freestyle, and 6:17,96 in the 400m individual medley.

Oliver Durand of Dolphins set two records in the men's 15-16 year category. In the 200m breaststroke he set a new time of 2:29,20, and in the 200m butterfly he set a new record of 2:11,12.

Roselinda Matyayi of Aqua set two records in the girls' 11-12 year category.

She broke her own records in both events, setting a time of 32,71 seconds in the 50m backstroke, and 30,80 in the 50m butterfly.

In the women's 45-and-over category Lucy Louw of Swakopmund set a new record of 40,79 seconds in the 50m backstroke, and in the men's 11-12 50m butterfly, Rodney Feris of Aqua set a new time of 29,44 seconds.

There were also two relay records: In the women's 11-12 year category, the Dolphins team of Sandra Schnebel, Cara Meyer, Ariana Naukosho and Vitoria De Sousa set a new 200m medley relay record of 2:25,62, while in the men's open category, the Dolphins team of Oliver Ohm, Arkell Wellmann, Oliver Durand and Marco Henning set a new 400m freestyle relay record of 3:38,84.

Durand and Molina Smalley of Dolphins won the Senior Victor and Victrix Ludorum awards. Durand won the male category with 3 735 points, followed by Marco Henning (3 502) and Arkell Wellmann (3 346), while Smalley won the female category with 3 541 points, followed by Jessica Humphrey of Aqua (3 144) and Trisha Mutumbulua of Dolphins (3 018).

Durand dominated the men's trophy haul, winning 12 out of 16 trophies. Henning, Robin Engelhard, Nico Esslinger and Christopher de Jager each won one trophy.

Smalley dominated the women's category, winning 11 of the 14 trophies, while Humphrey won three.

Marco Henning established the single best performance of the championships when he obtained 655 Fina points for winning the men's open 100m freestyle in 53,99 seconds.

Dolphins Swimming Club was a comfortable winner of the club competition with a total of 4 286 points, collecting more than double the points of second-placed Aqua Swimming & Fitness Club (2 119,50), while Marlins Swimming Club trailed in third place on 360 points.

Swakopmund Swimming Club finished fourth with 211 points, followed by Phoenix Swimming Academy (123), and Flippers (118,50), while swimmers of the International Paralympic Committee, collected 51 points.

Dolphins also dominated the medal count, winning 329 medals in total (112 gold, 112 silver, 105 bronze), followed by Aqua with 137 medals (62 gold, 42 silver and 33 bronze), and Marlins with 24 (10 gold, 8 silver, 6 bronze).

Swakopmund won 21 medals (10 gold, 7 silver and 4 bronze), Phoenix 6 medals (3 gold, 3 silver), Flippers 7 medals (3 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze) and International Paralympic Committee 5 medals (3 gold, 2 silver).

This article originally appeared on Namibian

Photo: Helge Schütz