Feris shines at SA Junior Swimming Champs 

Rodney Feris was Namibia’s star performer at the South African National Junior Swimming Championships which were concluded in Cape Town on Tuesday. 

The 14-year-old swimmer from Aqua Swimming and Fitness Academy won four of Namibia’s six medals, while he also broke two national age group records. 

Competing against the top junior swimmers of Southern Africa, Feris won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals in the men’s 14-year-old category.

He won the gold medal in the 50m freestyle final in a time of 25,17 seconds, which improved his previous personal best time of 25,79, while it also broke Jose Canjulo’s former national record of 25,56. 

Feris won a silver medal in the 50m butterfly, finishing second in a time of 26,88, which improved his previous personal best time of 27,59, while it also broke Canjulo’s previous national record of 26,92 seconds. 

In the 100m freestyle Feris won a bronze medal after coming third in 55,72, beating his previous personal best time of 56,48, although it was just outside Canjulo’s national record of 55,62. 

Feris also won a bronze medal in the 100m butterfly in a time of 1:01,11, which was two seconds faster than his previous best, although it was well outside Canjulo’s national record of 59,40. 

Feris also reached the finals of the 200m freestyle where he came sixth in a time of 2:04,15; the 50m backstroke where he came eighth in a personal best time of 30,43 seconds; and the 100m backstroke where he came 10th in a personal best time of 1:06,41. 

Victoria de Sousa won two silver medals in the women’s 14-year-old category. 

She came second in the 400m individual medley in 5:20,98, which was nearly 17 seconds faster than her previous best time, although it was quite a bit off Heleni Stegiadis’ national 13-14 year record of 5:09,65. 

De Sousa won another silver medal in the 200m individual medley where she came second in 2:29,65, which was more than 10 seconds faster than her previous best of 2:41,12, and just outside Stergiadis’ national record of 2:27,41.

De Sousa also reached the finals of the 200m breaststroke where she came 10th in 2:59,48. 

In the women’s 12 and under category, Roze van Wyk came fifth in both the 50m breaststroke in 38,30 seconds, as well as the 200m individual medley in 2:41,86. 

In the women’s 14-year 200m individual medley Lilia Ellis came fifth in a personal best time of 2:32,11. 

In the women’s 15-16 category Mikayla Geyser came sixth in the 200m butterfly in 2:43,48 and eighth in the 200m backstroke in 2:37,37.

In the men’s 17-19 200m butterfly Michael Bauernschmitt came ninth in a personal best time of 2:20.60 

In the men’s 12 and under category, Oelof Badenhorst reached four finals, producing personal best times in each one of them. 

He came sixth in the 200m breaststroke in 3:01,62; seventh in the 100m breaststroke in 1:21,60; seventh in the 200m individual medley in 2:36,75; and ninth in the 50m breaststroke in 37,73.

In the men’s 15-16 category, Kayleb Benade came 12th in the 200m butterfly in a personal best time of 2:20,16.

In the men’s 15-16 category, Naan Jiao came came eighth in the 400m individual medley in 4:55,86 and 15th in the men’s 200m butterfly in a personal best time of 2:21.72.

In the women’s 14-year category Candice Rey came fifth in the 1 500m final in a time of 19:32,41. 

In the women’s 12-and-under category Xinyue Huang came ninth in the 100m butterfly final in a personal best time of 1:14,82, and tenth in the 200m backstroke final in 2:50,88.  

In the boys 12-and-under category Patrick Durand came ninth in both the 100m butterfly in 1:13,63 and the 200m breaststroke in a personal best time of 3:11,58. 

The Namibian Swimming Federation (Nasfed) team finished 16th out of 98 competing clubs. 

The following 15 swimmers represented the Nasfed team:

Oelof Badenhorst, Michael Bauernschmitt, Kayleb Benade, Emma Brinkmann, Victoria de Sousa, Patrick Durand, Lilia Ellis, Rodney Feris, Mikayla Geyser, Xinyue Huang, Naan Jiao, Jeremy Musati, Candice Rey, Sandra Schnebel and Roze van Wyk. 

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