ALEXANDER Skinner of Dolphins and Zanre Oberholzer of Namibia Swimming Academy (NSA) gave the top senior performances at the Bank Windhoek Namibian National Swimming Championships over the weekend.
Skinner won the senior Victor Ludorum trophy as well as the trophy for the best performance of the day, when he won the Men 17-and-over 100m freestyle in 52,61 seconds.
It was outside his national record of 51,98 seconds but it gave him 708 Fina points – the only swimmer to break the 700-mark.
Skinner won six trophies in total, while Bernard Theron of Dolphins won five, Ronan Wantenaar (NSA) three and Jorn Diekmann (NSA) one trophy.
Skinner won the senior Victor Ludorum trophy with 3 699 points, followed by Bernard Theron (3 406) and Jorn Diekmann (3 126).
Backstroke specialist Zanre Oberholzer won the senior Victrix Ludorum trophy after breaking three records and producing three of the top six performances at the championships.
Competing in the women’s 17-and-over category, she took more than a second off her own record of 31,76 seconds in the 50m backstroke with a new time of 30,49 seconds, while she broke Monica Dahl’s long-standing record of 1:07,87 in the 100m backstroke with a new time of 1:05:84.
She also set a new record of 2:24,52 in the 200m backstroke, breaking Toni Roth’s previous record of 2:27,88.
Oberholzer won six trophies, while Daniella Lindemeier (NSA) won five, Toni Roth (NSA) two, and Kiara Schatz (NSA), Heleni Stergiadis (Dolphins) and Joanne Liebenberg (Dolphins) one each.
Oberholzer won the senior Victrix Ludorum trophy with 3 775 points, followed by Daniela Lindemeier (3 574) and Toni Roth (3 295).
Besides Oberholzer’s three records, a further four Namibian records and one Nasu record were broken.
In the Men’s 200m Individual 8-and-under category, Oliver Durand of Dolphins set a new record of 3:26,16, breaking Hardus Louw’s 14-year-old record of 3:32,27.
Dolphins also set three records in the relay events – in the women’s 8-and-under 200m freestyle; the men’s 9-10 200m freestyle; and the men’s 13-14 200m Medley relay.
Dolphins’ men’s 11-12 200m freestyle team also set a new Nasu record.
Heleni Stergiadis won the junior Victrix Ludorum trophy with 143 points, followed by Viktoria Ellmies (132) and Tiana Esslinger (114), while Corne le Roux won the junior Victor Ludorum trophy with 136 points, followed by Rene Viljoen (129) and Bernhard van der Walt (121).
Dolphins was the most successful club at the championships, winning more than half of the medals on offer. Dolphins won 92 gold medals and a total of 259 medals, while NSA won 63 gold and a total of 154 medals. Swakopmund Swimming Club also won two gold medals (12 in total) and Oranjemund Sand Sharks one gold (15 in total).
Dolphins obtained a combined team score total of 3 803 points, followed by NSA (2 094), Oranjemund (282), Swakopmund (167) and Aqua Swimming and Fitness Club (37).
None of Namibia’s top swimmers came close to Olympic A qualifying times, but they will still have an opportunity to try and qualify at upcoming events in South Africa and Mauritius.
The SA National Level Three Championships will be held in Port Elizabeth from 18 to 22 March; the SA National Aquatic Championships in Durban from 10-16 April; and the Cana Zone Four Championships in Beau-Bassin, Mauritius from 20-23 April.
The complete results are attached.
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