Wantenaar the shining star of long-course championship

Ronan Wantenaar once again put in a number of dominating performances at the Namibian Swimming Federation’s four-day national long-course championship, held at the municipal swimming pool in Olympia over the weekend and sponsored by Bank Windhoek.
Of the top seven best individual performances of the championship in terms of points earned on international swimming federation FINA’s rankings, Wantenaar laid claim to a whopping six.
The best performance by the 21-year-old from Aqua Swimming Club was in the 50-metre backstroke, where his winning time of 27.39 earned him 672 FINA points.
In the breaststroke distances of 50 m (29.70 seconds) and 100 m (1:05.08), he earned 667 FINA points in each race.
His clubmate, the 16-year-old José Canjulo, excelled with 631 FINA points when he completed the 110 metres freestyle in 54.69 seconds.

Girls hold their own
Seventeen-year-old Trisha Mutumbulua from Dolphins scored the highest FINA points among the female swimmers in the two short freestyle events, earning 595 points in the 100 m with a time of 1:01.47 as well as 594 points for the 50 m she swam in 28.15.
Thirteen-year-old Aqua swimmer Jessica Humphrey also showed great progress, especially in the backstroke where she earned 565 and 560 FINA points in the 100 and 50 m (1:09.61 and 32.73) respectively.
At the conclusion of the championship yesterday, Wantenaar was awarded the senior victor ludorum and overall best achiever, while Humphries took senior victrix ludorum. Aqua clubmates Lorenzo Esterhuizen and Reza Westerduin took the junior victor and victrix ludorum titles.
A total of 15 national records in various age groups were improved in individual events as well as relays over the four days of the championships.

Esterhuizen impresses
Esterhuizen was responsible for three new Namibian age group records (boys 11 to 12) with his times of 1:08.79 in the 100 m backstroke; 2:25.69 in the 200 m backstroke; and 31.67 in the 50 m backstroke.
Along with his Aqua teammates Kabelo Hekandjo, Kayleb Benade en Rodney Feris, he was also involved in the new 200 m medley relay record attempt of 2:21.99.
Wantenaar also added to his national record collection in the 50 m butterfly, winning in 25.95. With his teammates Canjulo, Lushano Lamprecht and Brave Magongo in the 200 m medley relay, they took the new national record to 1:49.73.
Dolphins won the overall team competition, edging out Aqua and Marlins.