Namibian swimmer Ronan Wantenaar was in great form over the weekend, winning a gold medal and breaking two Namibian records at an international meet in Paris.
Wantenaar competed at the Giant Open Meet in Saint Denis, Paris, where some of the world’s top swimmers like Maxime Grousset and Yohann Brouard of France, as well as Ben Proud of England and Michael Andrew of the United States were in action.
On Friday evening, Wantenaar qualified for the 200m breaststroke final after posting a time of 2:17,54 in his heat. In the final he improved that time by more than two seconds, to come fifth overall in 2:15,27, which also broke his own Namibian Open record of 2:15,52 that he set at the African Games in Ghana last year.
The race was won by Marc Antoine of France in 2:10,84, with Ivo Kroes of The Netherlands coming second in 2:13,54 and Carl Aitkaci of France third in 2:15,04.
Wantenaar, however, kept his best performance for last, with a brilliant swim in the 100m breaststroke on Saturday evening.
He just managed to qualify for the A final after posting the eighth fastest heat time of 1:02,58, which was more than a second outside his national record of 1:01,35.
In the final, however, he got off to a great start and by the 50m turn was lying third just behind Bernhard Reitshammer of Austria and Antoine Viquerat of France.
Wantenaar turned on the power in the home straight to surge ahead and win the gold medal in a new Namibian record time of 1:00,53, which was nearly a second faster than his previous record. Reitshammer came second in 1:01,07 and Viquerat third in 1:01,20.
Wantenaar said it was quite a challenging swim.
“It was quite a bit of a challenge as I was in Lane 8, so I couldn’t see the other swimmers with the result that I had to pace myself and swim my own race. But I felt really good and am happy with my performance – this year I am aiming to go below one minute in the 100m breastsroke,” he said.
Wantenaar however felt that he can still improve a lot on his 200m.
“I feel thay my performance was lacking in some areas, and there’s definitely work to be done to improve my 200m time,” he said.
Wantenaar is currently on a swimming scholarship from World Aquatics in Antibes, France.
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