Jessica Humphrey, Keila de Oliveira and Luke Beukes were Namibia’s star performers at the South African National Aquatic Senior Championships 2026, held in Gqeberha from 14 to 18 April.
Competing against Southern Africa’s top swimmers they reached several finals, setting some personal best times and national records in the process, while De Oliveira also won two medals.
Competing in the women’s multi-class De Oliveira (16) won a silver medal in the 100m backstroke with a time of 1:39.78, and a bronze medal in the 50m butterfly event.
She also finished among the top five in the 50m backstroke and 100m freestyle events, while she reached the 50m freestyle final.
Humphrey (17) reached two A finals, while also setting some personal best times.
She reached the 50m backstroke A final where she came sixth in 29.54 seconds, which was just outside her national record of 29.50.
She also reached the 200m backstroke A final, finishing seventh overall in 2:21.73, which was just outside her personal best time of 2:20.54.
In the 100m backstroke, Humphrey reached the B final, finishing 10th overall in a new personal best time of 1:03.91, which improved her former mark of 1:05.21 that she set at the Region 5 Games last year.
Humphrey also finished in the top 20 in the 50m freestyle in 27.18, which beat her former personal best time of 27.69, while she finished in the top 40 in the 100m freestyle in 1:00.32.
Beukes (17) held his own against South Africa’s top swimmers, narrowly missing out on a medal after finishing fourth in the 50m freestyle A final in a personal best time of 22.71 seconds.
It was a marked improvement on his previous personal best and national 17-18 year record of 23.33 that he set at the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in Romania last year, but still a bit off Xander Skinner’s national open record of 21.85.
Beukes also reached the 100m freestyle A final where he came fifth in 50.54 which shattered his previous best time of 51.86 that he set in Romania last year, while it is also a new national 17/18 year record, breaking Skinner’s previous mark of 51.54 seconds.
His time is also getting closer to Skinner’s national open record of 49.97 seconds.
Beukes also reached the 100m butterfly B final where he came 16th in 56.26, which was within touch of his personal best of 56.01 seconds.
In the 50m butterfly, Beukes finished amongst the top 25 in a new personal best time of 25.55, which just beat his former mark of 25.58 that he set in Romania last year.
The Namibia Aquatic Sports Federation team finished seventh overall out of 11 competing teams with 35 points, while the Aquatics Gauteng Tshwane team were the overall winners with 1 412 points.
Nasfed meanwhile announced that a team of 11 swimmers will represent Namibia at the African Aquatics Championships in Oran, Algeria from 8 to 19 May.
The team consists of Beukes, Nathan Bock, Jose Canjulo, Lorenzo Esterhuizen, Ronan Wantenaar, Victoria De Sousa, Lilia Ellis, Roselinde Matyayi, Trisha Mutumbulua, Ainoa Naukosho and Molina Smalley.
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