Strauss Lunyangwe
Windhoek-Namibia’s young swimming wunderkind Eliphas Nakaleke again hogged the headlines over the weekend when he smashed a 15-year-old national record set in 2002 by Hardes Louw, which stood at 42.10.
Nakaleke participated in the Bank Windhoek Long Course Gala event in the 50-metre butterfly stroke, shattering the record in a time of 41.28 seconds in his age group.
The gifted swimmer has been showing signs of improvement recently and broke the short course-four gala record by 41.30 seconds in July. The young swimming sensation also participated in other events on the day, gaining much-needed experience and improving on his times in all the 50-metre events.
Head coach of Aqua Swimming Club Jean-Michael Leitner expressed his joy over the performance of his swimmers on the day, especially the young Nakaleke. “My swimmers did exceptionally well, with Eliphas improving on his times in all events. His previous time in the 50 fly was 59.08 seconds and he improved it to 41.02 seconds,” Leitner enthused.
Nakalele also participated in the short course nationals in Swakopmund a couple of weeks ago, where he set up a 100-metre Iron record in 1 minute 32 seconds. He scooped four gold medals in all the short course events he took part in, making him the best performer for the club at that competition.
He will be taking part in the school inter-house gala competition this weekend at Katutura swimmingpool, starting on Friday and ending on Saturday. After that, Aqua Swimming Club will host their own gala event on November 1 and 2, with the venue to be announced in due course.