Wantenaar shines in Singapore 

Ronan Wantenaar was in great form at the Singapore National Championships over the weekend, winning a gold and a silver medal.

He won a gold medal in the 50m breaststroke event in a new Namibian record time of 27,24 seconds, which broke his own former national record of 27,62 seconds. Junhao Chan of Singapore came second in 27,97 seconds, while Andrew Goh of Malaysia came third in 28,50.

Wantenaar also won a silver medal after coming second in the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:01,83 which was nearly half a second outside his national record of 1:01,35 that he established at the Malaysian Open last year. Chan won the race in 1:00,98, while Likith Prema of India came third in 1:02,58.

Wantenaar also competed in the 200m individual medley where he came fifth in a time of 2:08,95, which was well outside his national record of 2:03,64 that he set in Malaysia last year. 

Wantenaar, who is trying to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games, has been in great form this year and in March won a gold and a silver medal at the African Games in Accra. He won gold in the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:01,86 and silver in the 200m breaststroke in a Namibian record time of 2:15,52.

He, however, still has some way to go with the Olympic A qualifying times being 59,49 seconds for the 100m breaststroke and 2:09,68 for the 200m breaststroke.

Wantenaar might also stand a chance of qualifying for the Olympics via B qualifying times, depending on whether the quota for swimmers for the Olympics has been reached or not. The B times are also quite steep, being 59,79 seconds for the 100m breaststroke and 2:10,33 for the 200m breaststroke.

In more swimming news, Oliver Durand of Dolphins Swimming Club and Guoxuan Huang of Dolphins both set three national age group records at the Namibia Swimming Federation’s second short course gala in Windhoek on Saturday. 

Competing in the men 15-16 year old category, Durand set new records in the 200m freestyle, 800m freestyle and 200m individual medley events. In the 200m freestyle he set a time of 1:54,27, which broke his former record of 1:54,34; in the 800m freestyle he won with a time of 8:28,32, which was more than 13 seconds faster than his former mark of 8:41,69; and in the 200m individual medley, he won in 2:06,78, which beat his former record of 2:07,19. 

Huang established three records in the boys eight and under age group category. 

He won the 50m butterfly in a new record time of 39,70 seconds, breaking Patrick Durand’s former mark of 40,26 seconds; he won the 100m individual medley in 1:27,20, breaking Patrick Durand’s former record of 1:31,49; and he won the 200m individual medley in 3:09,47, taking nearly 10 seconds off Oliver Durand’s former mark of 3:19,16. 

Morten Scheuermann of Marlins Swimming Club set two records in the men 45 and over category, with a time of 1:21,59 for the 100m backstroke, which broke the former mark of 1:22,75, and 1:21,13 for the 100m individual medley, which broke the former mark of 1:24,72. 

There were also two Namibian relay records and three Namibia Swimming Federation (Nasfed) relay records established at the gala.

The Aqua Swimming and Fitness Club’s team of Quelin Benade, Madison Bergh, Alexandra Kapapa and Jessica Humphrey set a new Women 15-16 year-old 200m freestyle relay record of 1:59,63, breaking Dolphins’ former mark of 1:59,90, while the Dolphins team of Patrick Durand, Zandro Thirion, Jasper Coetzee and Oelof Badenhorst set a new boys 9-10 year-old 200m freestyle relay record of 2:17,20, taking nearly 10 seconds off the previous mark of 2:26,79. 

The Dolphins team of Mangano Imbondi, Joelle Oudshoorn, Alexis Stoffberg and Sofia Glen-Spyron set a new girls 9-10 200m freestyle relay Nasfed record of 2:30,71; the Dolphins team of Oelof Badenhorst, Joelle Oudshoorn, Patrick Durand and Sofia Glen-Spyron set a new mixed 10 and under 400m medley relay Nasfed record of 5:34,93; and the Dolphins team of Sophia Husselmann, Dani McNamara, Jiao Nuoan and Christi de Kock set a girls eight and under 200m freestyle Nasfed relay record of 3:05,03.