Swimmers hit top performances at local Gala

THE competitive part of the swimming season has started after months of preparation by the swimmers. Most of the galas swum during the winter and spring months were more to assess the fitness and efficiency of the training programs and not to expect top level performances by the swimmers. Top performances and a number of national records were the order of the day at the Namibian Swimming Union gala hosted by Namib Swimming Academy (NSA) last Saturday.

Outstanding results were achieved by 10-year old Zanre Oberholzer. She set new short course record times in the 100 m freestyle, 100 m backstroke and 200 m individual medley events. She also broke the 100 m fly record of Nicole Pienaar that was just set last month. Zanre is in outstanding form at the moment and according to her coach Ulrike Leitner at NSA, much can be expected of her in the future. Another of Ulrike’s top performers at the gala was Theo Visser who set national records for the 100 m freestyle, 100 m backstroke and 100 m breaststroke in the boys 9-10 age group.

He has consistently improved his personal best times over the last couple of galas and is part of a group of very promising young swimmers coming through the ranks of the Namibia Swimming Union. Some of Namibia’s top age group and senior swimmers also did very well at the gala. Tristan McDonald (NSA) swam an excellent time of 1.03.67 for the 100 m backstroke and is slowly building up to his best form again.

He recently also won the Namibia Mile open water swimming event at the Friedenhau dam. Max Siedentopf (NSA) broke the 100 m breaststroke record with an excellent time of 1.09.47. He is also the record holder in the 200 m breaststroke event. Byron Briedenhann, also from NSA, continued his excellent performances and broke the 100 m backstroke and 200 m individual medley national records.

He swam the two events in 1.02.40 and 2.16.61 respectively and achieved over 600 FINA points in the 200 m IM. He also broke the Namibian open records in both these events. The 200 m individual medley was a hotly contested race as all three medal winners swam faster than the previous national open record of 2:18.43. Alex Ray from Marlins Swimming Club is also approaching his best form as he swam excellent personal best times and his time of 55.16 seconds for the 100 m freestyle was just outside his national record of 54.45.

Rory Buck from South Africa, who is a coach/swimmer at the NSA, showed his class when he won the 100 m freestyle in 54.49. Jonay Briedenhann (NSA) swam the 200 m individual medley in 2: 26.60 which is well over 650 FINA points and once again qualified her for the 9th FINA Short Course world championships in Manchester, Great Britain during April 2008. This was the highest FINA points and the best performance achieved at the gala. The above swimmers are all coach by Ryan Skinner as part of an elite training group at the NSA.

The Namibia Swimming Union (NASU) is sending a NASU Invitational team of more than 70 swimmers to participate at the Northern Cape aquatic championships in Upington from 1 to 3 December 2007. A strong group of swimmers will also leave for Pretoria on Thursday to participate at the Northern Tigers swimming championships. Much is expected as these two teams involve most of Namibia’s top swimmers.

NASU is also taking part at the Sub-Sahara Zone 4 Invitational training camp and gala in Malawi during the first week of January. Ten swimmers will represent NASU at the gala. The next swimming competition is this Saturday at the Marlins short course pool.