The Africa Aquatics Zone IV Swimming Championships got off to a great start with two records broken during the first session yesterday morning.
In the girls 15 and over 800m freestyle event, Namibia’s Madison Bergh set a new Zone IV record of 9 minutes 53,77 seconds, which improved the former mark by nearly two seconds.
Hannah Rigby of South Africa set the previous record last year with a time of 9:55,65.
Bergh and her Namibian team mate Reza Westerduin produced a great contest, with Bergh just pulling away over the final laps to take the gold medal, while Westerduin claimed silver in a time of 10:03,92.
Hayley Hoy of Eswatini won the bronze medal in 10:28,23.
Kellen Jones of South Africa also broke a record in the boys 14 and under 800m freestyle.
Jones glided through the water to pull away from the rest of the field and win gold medal in 9:13,33, which beat Namibia’s Oliver Durand’s former 2022 record of 9:19,11.
Jones finished well clear of the chasing pack with Guimaraes Santiago of Angola claiming silver in 10:10,98 and Jean Baptiste Nasri of Seychelles bronze in 10:09,91.
South African swimmers claimed gold in the other two 800m freestyle events yesterday morning.
Zuria Venter won the Girls 14 and under category in 9:54,02, which was well off the record time of 9:32,31, but well ahead of the rest of the pack. Alexis Johnsen of Zimbabwe claimed silver in 10:18,03, while Namibia’s Lara Steyn won bronze in 10:38,89.
Claudio Domiter of South Africa won gold in the Boys 15 and over category in a time of 9:06,68, with Heer Usadadiya of Uganda winning silver in 9:08,70 and Mulenga Cole of Zamjbia bronze in 9:09,54.
More than 370 swimmers from 15 nations are competing at the championships which continue till Sunday. The championships continue at 09h00 this morning with the 200m breaststroke events.
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