Dolphins dominate at nationals

The Dolphins Swimming Club, with a total of 79 swimmers, were the winners of the Bank Windhoek Namibian National Long Course Swimming Championships, followed by NSA (37), Oranjemund (14), Swakopmund (12) and Aqua (5).
In the senior category, Alexander Skinner (Dolphins) clinched the ‘Victor Ludorum’ while for the Victrix Ludorum was scooped by Zanré Oberholzer (Namib Swimming Academy). The Junior ‘Victor Ludorum’ was Corné le Roux (Dolphins) and Junior Victrix Ludorum was Heleni Stergiadis (Dolphins).
Top FINA points went to Skinner for his performance in the 100m Freestyle of 708 points. Oberholzer took second and third place for her performances in the 50 and 100m Backstroke with 699 and 687 FINA points respectively.
A total of 143 swimmers from Windhoek, Swakopmund and as far as Oranjemund attended this event. Oberholzer, who showed that she was getting back in form when she broke the 50m, 100m and 200m Backstroke records in the17-18 year age group. Zanré broke her own record in the 50m Backstroke of 31.76 seconds with a new record time of 30.49 seconds.
The long-standing 100m Backstroke record of Monica Dahl of 1:07,87min was improved to a new time of 1:05.84. The 200m Backstroke record of Toni Roth set at the African Union Sports-Region 5 of 2:27.88 was improved to 2:24.52.
Meanwhile, 8 year old Oliver Durand of Dolphins broke the 200m Individual Medley when he improved the old Namibian record of 3:32.27 and the old NASU record of 3:27.93 with a time of 3:26.16.
Three Namibian relay records were broken as the 8/Under Dolphins Girls team of Ariana Naukosho, Aleka Spath, Maja Brinkmann and Keira von Alvensleben improved the 200m Freestyle record of 3:06.70 to a new time of 3:01.62.
In the Boys 9/10 200 Freestyle relay the team of Dolphins consisting of Jose Canjulo, Oliver Ohm, Nico Esslinger and Enrik von Alvensleben improved the old time of 2:21.37 to a new time of 2:21.10.
Dolphins relay team Johann Serfontein, Martin Oosthuizen, Corné le Roux and Jodave Cioccolanti, broke the Boys 13/14 Medley relay record. They improved the old time of 2:11.60 with split seconds to a new time of 2:11.16.
Swimmers will now be travelling to South Africa to participate in SA Senior Nationals, Level 3 in Port Elizabeth, Level 2 in Johannesburg and Level 1 in Cape Town.
A Swimming Namibia team will also attend the African Swimming Confederations (CANA) competition in Mauritius to be held from 20-24 April.