Oliver Durand of Dolphins Swimming Club and Jessica Humphrey of Aqua Swimming and Fitness Club were the star performers at the Bank Windhoek National Swimming Championships which concluded in Windhoek on Sunday.
The 16-year-old Durand and the 15-year-old Humphrey who both represented Namibia at the recent Africa Games in Ghana, where Humphrey won a bronze medal, won the senior victor ludorum and victrix ludorum trophies.
Durand won the senior victor ludorum trophy with 4 025 points, followed by Nico Esslinger of Dolphins with 3 381 and Luke Beukes of Aqua with 3 304 points, while Humphrey won the senior victrix ludorum trophy with 3 931 points, followed by Molly Smalley of Dolphins with 3 583 and Roselinde Matyayi of Aqua with 3 279 points.
Durand and Humphrey also featured amongst the record breakers at the championships, with Durand breaking four records in the boys 15-16 year category, while Humphrey broke one record in the girls 15-16 year category.
Durand set a new 50m butterfly record of 25,89 seconds to break Jose Canjulo’s former mark of 26,21, while he also broke his own 100m butterfly record of 57,80 with a new time of 57,63.
Durand also did the double in the freestyle, winning the 50m in 24,28 seconds to break Oliver Ohm’s former record of 24,48 seconds, while he won the 100m in 53,03 seconds to break his own record of 53,52 seconds.
Humphrey set a new 50m backstroke record of 29,95 seconds to break Zanre Oberholzer’s 10-year-old record of 30,09 seconds.
In the girls 9-10 year category, Xinyue Huang of Dolphins set a new 50m butterfly record of 33,84 seconds to break Christine Briedenhann’s 18-year-old record of the 33,96.
The two relay records were both set by Dolphins in the boys 9-10 year category.
In the 200m freestyle relay, their team of Dirk Badenhorst, Jasper Coetzee, Aiden Diehl and Patrick Durand set a new record of 2:16,70, to break the former nine-year-old record of 2:16,92.
In the 200m medley relay, Diehl, Badenhorst and Durand teamed up with Harry Kibble to break the former record of 2:37,38 with a new time of 2:34,49.
Durand and Humphrey also produced the top performances at the nationals in terms of international Fina points.
Humphrey produced the top two performances, with 737 points for winning the girls 15-16 50m backstroke in 29,95 seconds, and 702 points for winning the 100m backstroke in 1:05,37.
Durand produced the next three best performances, receiving 692 points for his 100m freestyle time of 53,03 seconds; 672 points for his 100m backstroke time of 59,18 seconds, and 650 points for his 50m butterfly time of 25,89 seconds.
Rodney Feris of Aqua won the junior victor ludorum trophy with 124 points, followed by Aidan Naan of Dolphins with 116 and Riley Bergh of Aqua with 87 points, while Sandra Schnebel of Dolphins won the junior victrix ludorum trophy with 124 points, followed by Emma Brinkmann of Dolphins with 119 points and Vicky Huang of Dolphins with 116 points.
Dolphins was once again the top club at the nationals, with a combined team score of 3 615 points, finishing well ahead of while Aqua who came second with 2 182 points. The rest of the clubs trailed far behind with Flippers Swimming Club coming third with 219 points, Marlins Swimming Club fourth (193 points), Oranjemund Sand Sharks fifth (142) and Swakopmund Swimming Club sixth (25).
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