Wantenaar breaks four records

NAMIBIAN swimmer Ronan Wantenaar was in great form over the weekend when he broke four national records in Malaysia.

Wantenaar, who is on a Fina scholarship in Thailand, competed at the Malaysia Open Swimming Championships in Kua- la Lumpur, where he set new Namibian men’s open records in the 50m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medley events.

On Saturday, Wantenaar broke his own records in the men’s 50m backstroke and 100m breaststroke events.

In the 50m backstroke, he beat his former national record of 26,99 seconds on two occasions – in his heat he set a new

record time of 26,97, while he brought that down to 26,54 in the final.

In the 100m breaststroke, he took two seconds off his previous record of 1:03,04 with a new time of 1:01,35.

Yesterday, Wantenaar broke two more records that he previously held in the 200m breaststroke and the 200m indi- vidual medley.

In the 200m breaststroke, he took nearly five seconds off his previous record of 2:21,85 with a new time of 2:16,64, and in the 200m individual medley, he nearly took four seconds off his previous record time of 2:07,47, with a new time of 2:03,64.

Wantenaar said he was very excited and proud of his achievements.

“I’ve been working really hard for the past few months to qualify for the Olympics and my hard work is finally paying off. I’m really happy with my performances so far,” he said.

Wantenaar’s fine performances follow shortly on the heels of another Namibian swimmer Xander Skinner, who is study- ing and competing in the United States.

Competing at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale a week ago, Skinner broke two of his own Namibian men’s open records.

In the 50m freestyle, he broke his previ- ous record of 22,91 seconds with a time of 22,69, and in the 50m butterfly he broke his previous record of 25,77 seconds with a time of 25,57.