WINDHOEK – Joanne Liebenberg of the Dolphins Swimming Club was the deserving winner in the U-12 1500m freestyle event during the 4th Bank Windhoek long course swimming gala held at the Olympia municipal swimming pool in Windhoek over the weekend.
Joanne won the course in a new record time when she clocked 19:57.64 to improve the 1500m freestyle record time of 20:29.02 previous set by Heleni Stergiadis (Dolphins). Joanne improved the record by a massive 46 seconds. Many swimmers used the gala as preparation for the upcoming level galas in South Africa, but did however deliver a few personal best times with the junior swimmers from various clubs improving with leaps and bounds. Jade Coury of the Namibia Swimming Academy (NSA) managed to swim level 2 qualifying times on Friday in the 100m breaststroke and the 50m butterfly events. Other girls that stood out with personal best times of more than a few seconds were Carmen Diekmann (NSA), Viktoria Elmies (Dolphins), Megan Jansen van Vuuren (Dolphins), Nanaya Joseph (NSA), Lucia Lass Drews (Dolphins), Alexandra Dauth (Dolphins) and Erne Dauth (Dolphins). The boys also had a great gala with Lars Fischer (Dolphins), Tristan Feldmann (Dolphins), Armand Hagen (Dolphins), Mbeurora Kaumanika (NSA), Jureck Johannesson (NSA), Heinrich le Roux (Dolphins), Fiano Feris (NSA), Heinrich Burger (NSA), Jodave Cioccolanti (Dolphins), Tia Kaumanika (NSA) and Hendrik Vermeulen (Swakopmund) all enjoying excellent results.
“The Namibia Swimming Union would like to wish all swimmers competing in South Africa later this month all the best of luck and fast waters. We would also like to thank all officials for their hard work during the season thus far,” said Angelika Diekmann, Secretary General of the Namibia Swimming Union (NASU).
The fifth and final Bank Windhoek long course swimming gala will be held at the end of March at the Olympia municipal swimming pool.
By Staff Reporter