By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK
Several records tumbled at the Namibian Swimming Union (NASU) short course gala at the Marlins Swimming Complex in Windhoek last Saturday.
All three Windhoek-based swimming clubs competed at the gala and there were some great performances by the swimmers with a number of personal best times recorded by swimmers from all clubs.
The gala started off well for Juan Lamprecht (Namib Swimming Academy) who set a new record of 52,46 seconds in the 50 m backstroke for boys 8 years and under.
He bettered the previous best time of Jurg von Alvensleben by 00,31 seconds.
Byron Briedenhann from Namib Swimming Academy had a very good day at the pool and set new national short course records in the 50 m freestyle (25.86 sec), 50 m butterfly (27,46 sec) and 100 m freestyle (56,66 sec).
The youngster is continuing his good form of the last couple of months since the international tour to Italy and has broken 16 national age group and open records in the short course pool.
His older sister Jonay Briedenhann also swam well at the gala and she broke the 50 m backstroke in the 17-18 year-old age group as well as the Namibian open record with her time of 32,08 seconds. She also set a new record in the 100 m breaststroke event with a time of 1 min 17,28 seconds.
Meanwhile, the union has also sent strong teams of swimmers to compete at the Northern Cape Aquatic Sports Association’s (NOCASA) Championships in Upington and the Northern Tigers Championships in Pretoria, during the first week of December.
The next gala will be held on Friday evening, December 21, 2007 at Swakopmund. It will be a “Dash for Cash” event where all the top swimmers will compete for huge cash prizes.
The competition is open for all visiting swimmers from other countries.
The competitors in the different age groups will go through a process of elimination with the top two swimmers to compete in the final for the cash prize.
This event will form part of all the other holiday attractions organized in Swakopmund over the festive season and will also be an opportunity for the Namibia Swimming Union to showcase their top age group swimmers to the public.