WINDHOEK – The curtain came down on the weeklong CANA Zone IV Championships in Windhoek on Wednesday with the South African team topping the medal table with an overall total of 102 medals across all three disciplines: swimming, open water and water polo.
The South Africans were closely tailed by the host nation on 90 medals, with Mauritius adrift in 3rd place on a total haul of 47 medals – leaving Zimbabwe to pick up the pieces in 4th spot with 39 medals.
Namibia’s Jose Canjulo (13) concluded the championships with a gold medal in the 100m freestyle, touching the wall in 57.46 ahead of SA’s Leshen Pillay (14) in 57.69 and Zimbabwe’s Cory Werrett (14) in 59.42.
He also added a silver medal in the 200m butterfly in 2:23.56a and bronze in the 200m individual medley in 2:23.50. Namibia’s Zune Weber (17) finished first in the freestyle in 1:02.31 ahead of 2nd placed Mauritius’ Tessa IP Hen Cheung (17) 1:02.37.
Lima also won the 200m individual medley in 2:31.34 to IP Hen Cheung’s 2:34.69 and Namibia’s Vicky Botha’s 2:42.48, while gold medal in the 200m butterfly 15-16 men’s went to Namibia’s Corne le Roux (16) in 2:13.83.
Zimbabwe’s Vhenekai Dhemba (12) continued to impress, adding another two gold medals to her tally, the 100m freestyle in 1:06.62 and the 200m individual medley in 2:48.83, while the medal podium in the freestyle was completed by Namibia’s Danielle Mostert (12) in 1:06.69 and Zambia’s Jade Phiri (12) in 1:09.24, and the individual medley by Namibia’s Ariana Naukosho in 2:49.72 and Mozambique’s Melyssa Rocha in 2:52.81.
Namibia’s Quinn Ellis (12) won silver in the 100m freestyle in 1:03.38 and bronze in the medley in 2:42.11 whilst compatriot Oliver Durand finished 2nd in the medley in 2:37.63.
In the 200m butterfly, Namibia’s Heleni Stergiadis (16) won in a new championship record time of 2:30.12 and followed that performance with another gold in the 200m individual medley in 2:25.34.
In the 15-16 age group 200m individual medley, Namibia’s Martin Oosthuizen claimed bronze (16) in 2:20.81.
In the 200m individual medley Namibia’s Ronan Wantenaar claimed silver in 2:12.75. The boys’ U14 200m freestyle relay gold was claimed by the host nation in a time of 1:48.23.
In the men’s over 15s 200m freestyle relay, Namibia ended 3rd and claimed another bronze medal in the girls’ U14 with a time of 2:02.70.
In the masters 100m freestyle race, the 25-44 age group, the host nation collected a bronze medal via Dentie Louw (35) in 1:08.29, and added gold and silver medals in the over 45 section – courtesy of Gabor Salamon (62) in 1:11.51.
Namibia won all three masters gold medals in the 200m individual medley, with Sunel Badenhorst (36), Jane Samson (52) and Dantie Louw (35) clocking, 3:29.46, 3:22.13 and 3:06.05, respectively.