Three records for Namibia at Budapest 

Namibian swimmers got off to a promising start with two individual and one relay record on their first day of competition at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest on Wednesday.

Competing in the men’s 100m breaststroke event, Ronan Wantenaar won his heat in a new Namibian open record time of 58,59 seconds, which according to the Namibia Swimming Federation’s website, swimmingnamibia.com, beat his own former record of 1:00,35 which was set two years ago at the World Swimming Championships in Melbourne, Australia. 

Wantenaar, however, failed to reach the semifinals for the top 16 swimmers as his time put him 30th overall. 

Oliver Durand came third in Heat 3 of the Men’s 200m individual medley in a time of 1:59,26, which was the 32nd fastest time overall. In the process he also broke the previous Namibian Open record of 2:03,32 which was established by Wantenaar two years ago (according to swimmingnamibia.com). 

Jessica Humphrey competed in the women’s 100m backstroke where she won her heat in 1 minute 00,95 seconds, which was just outside the national record of 1:00,90 that Zanre Oberholzer established 10 years ago. Humphrey’s time, however, was not good enough to make the semifinals, as she finished 41st overall. 

Molina Smalley came last in her heat in the Women’s 200m individual medley in a time of 2:22;81, which was her personal best time of the season, but more than three seconds off the Namibian Open record of 2:19,33 set by Sonja Adelaar 10 years ago. 

Namibia’s four swimmers then made history as they teamed up to compete in the 4x50m mixed medley relay, where they finished 28th overall out of 45 teams in a new national record time of 1:46,63. 

It was the first time that a Namibian relay team had competed at the world championships. 

Namibia were also the second African country behind South Africa, who came 20th in a new African record of 1:41,32.