THREE top Namibian swimmers will jet off to Montreal, Canada, on Sunday to compete at the World Swimming Championships, the biggest event on the swimming calendar.
The three Namibian swimmers include 19-year-old Dannielle van Zijl, who has had international experience at this level last October at the World Short Course Championships as well as at African Championship and Game level in Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria. She is currently a first-year student in Sports Science at the University of Pretoria and lives and trains at the High Performance Centre there.She will be swimming the breaststroke events over the 50m, 100m and 200m distances, as well as the 200 Individual Medley.A newcomer to the international arena, 18-year-old Alex Ray, who is a matric pupil at the Academy of the Pretoria High Performance Centre, will be swimming the 50m and 100m freestyle, as well as the 50m and 100m butterfly events.He swam for Namibia at the recent Prestige Gala and the National Championships in South Africa in March.Ray’s goal is to break the butterfly records of well-known Namibian swimmer Guenther Streit.The third member of the group, also a newcomer to the international scene, is 15 year-old Jonay Briedenhann, a student at St.Paul’s College in Windhoek.She has had a great deal of success at junior level on the sub-continent and has entered for the largest number of events, including the 50m and 100m freestyle, the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke, the 50m butterfly and the 200m Individual Medley.She is talented in all these items and will use this event to see which of these offers her the greatest rewards at the international level.The competition, which is swum in the 50m Olympic course, will be part of the five-discipline championships which include diving, water polo, synchronised swimming, and open-water swimming.For the first time in FINA’s history, all competitions will be held at the same complex.The Namibian team will be managed by Larry Laursen, who will also represent the Namibia Swimming Union (NASU) at various FINA meetings over the course of the 16-day schedule.Swimming starts on July 24 and will be televised on the SuperSport 7 channel.The event brings together more than 2 000 athletes from 160 countries in the disciplines of swimming, water polo, diving, synchronised swimming and open-water swimming, along with 1 000 team officials, 300 competition officials and more than 1 200 media representatives.She is currently a first-year student in Sports Science at the University of Pretoria and lives and trains at the High Performance Centre there.She will be swimming the breaststroke events over the 50m, 100m and 200m distances, as well as the 200 Individual Medley.A newcomer to the international arena, 18-year-old Alex Ray, who is a matric pupil at the Academy of the Pretoria High Performance Centre, will be swimming the 50m and 100m freestyle, as well as the 50m and 100m butterfly events.He swam for Namibia at the recent Prestige Gala and the National Championships in South Africa in March.Ray’s goal is to break the butterfly records of well-known Namibian swimmer Guenther Streit.The third member of the group, also a newcomer to the international scene, is 15 year-old Jonay Briedenhann, a student at St.Paul’s College in Windhoek.She has had a great deal of success at junior level on the sub-continent and has entered for the largest number of events, including the 50m and 100m freestyle, the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke, the 50m butterfly and the 200m Individual Medley.She is talented in all these items and will use this event to see which of these offers her the greatest rewards at the international level.The competition, which is swum in the 50m Olympic course, will be part of the five-discipline championships which include diving, water polo, synchronised swimming, and open-water swimming.For the first time in FINA’s history, all competitions will be held at the same complex.The Namibian team will be managed by Larry Laursen, who will also represent the Namibia Swimming Union (NASU) at various FINA meetings over the course of the 16-day schedule.Swimming starts on July 24 and will be televised on the SuperSport 7 channel.The event brings together more than 2 000 athletes from 160 countries in the disciplines of swimming, water polo, diving, synchronised swimming and open-water swimming, along with 1 000 team officials, 300 competition officials and more than 1 200 media representatives.
