Records shattered at national swimming gala
Several records were broken at the National Swimming Championships held in Windhoek last weekend. The swimming tournament saw 164 swimmers participate in 1 423 events over four days and concluded with prize-giving at the Olympia Swimming Pool in Windhoek on Sunday.
Records were smashed in the 200 metre relay events in a time of 2:03.19 by Nico Esslinger, Quinn Ellis, Oliver Ohm and José Canjulo. The previous record was set six years ago and stood at 2:07.23.
Daniel Lasso-Drews, Quinn Ellis, Oliver Ohm and Jose Canjulo, also broke another record in the 200 metre Medley Relay in a time of 2:23.32. The previous record stood at 2:27.52 and was set three years ago.
Victoria Ellmies and Heleni Stergiadis, share the Single Best Performance Trophy. Ellmies is awarded the trophy for her 200 metre Freestyle and Heleni Stergiadis for the 200 metre Medley with each swimmer having accrued 589 International Swimming Federation (FINA) points.
“It is an honour to win this award. I would like to thank my coach, parents and all my team mates for encouraging and supporting me all the way,” said Ellmies.
Stergiadis was thankful and could not hide her excitement. “I am so proud of myself. We have been practicing really hard for the past few weeks and it paid off. Thanks to my dad and coach for motivating me to keep on swimming and thank God for keeping the light in my life,” said Stergiadis.
The Single Best Performance Trophy is awarded to swimmers that achieve the highest number of FINA points in one single event during the championships. This is the same trophy won by Monica Dahl in 1988. Dahl is one of the first Namibian swimmers to compete at the Summer Olympics. She represented Namibia at the 1992 and the 1996 Games.
Meawhile, Namibia Swimming Union’s (NASU) Spokesperson, Jurie Badenhorst thatnked Bank Windhoek for their continued support.
“This has allowed us to have our yearly National Long Course Championships. We are very happy with the results achieved by the swimmers considering the fact that they are not fully tapered. They are in the midst of the preparing for the upcoming international meets including the African Swimming Confederation (CANA) Zone 4 in Malawi and the South African Junior Nationals slated to take place next month,” added Badenhorst.
Caption: Record breakers: From left to right, Oliver Ohm, Quinn Ellis, Jose Canjulo, Nico Esslinger and Daniel Lasso-Drews, celebrated their record in style.
