NamibiaSport

Namibian swimmers have excelled at the ninth Senior African Swimming Championships in Johannesburg, breaking several national records and reaching several finals against Africa’s top swimmers.

The 18-year-old Jonay Briedenhann won a silver medal when she came second in the 100m backstroke in a time of 1:08,04.



Jonay Briedenhann

Jonay reached a further three finals and narrowly missed out on two more medals. In the 50m backstroke she finished fourth in a time of 32,58 seconds and in the 50m breaststroke she once again finished fourth in a time of 35,09 seconds. Jonay’s times in all three events were within the qualifying times for the 2009 FINA World Cup event.
Jonay also reached the final of the 50m butterfly event where she finished seventh in a time of 30,60 seconds.

The 17-year-old Max Siedentopf reached two finals, finishing and set one new 17-18 year old Namibian age group record.
He finished sixth in the 50m breaststroke final in a new Namibian record time of 32.08 seconds and then once again finished sixth in the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:11,24.

The 12-year-old Christine Briedenhann broke one record and reached one final.
In the 50m butterfly event she finished 11th overall in a new Namibian 11-12 year old record time of 31,44 seconds, which improved Monica Dahl’s previous record of 31,83.
Briedenhann reached the final of the 100m freestyle event where she finished sixth in a time of 1:02,08.

The 16-year-old Tristan McDonald reached two finals. He finished eighth in the 200m freestyle in a time of 2:09,12 and then once again finished eighth in the 200m backstroke in a time of 2:19,88.

The 20-year-old Alex Ray reached one final, finishing eighth in the 100m freestyle in a time of 56,38 seconds. His heat time of 55,60 was within the qualifying time for the FINA World Cup.

The third Briedenhann sibling, 17-year-old Byron narrowly missed out on reaching three finals when he finished ninth in three events. He set a new Namibian 17-18 year old record of 29,18 seconds in the 50m backstroke event and then set a World Cup qualifying time of 26,89 seconds in the 50m butterfly event. In the 100m butterfly event he also finished ninth in a time of 1:00,92.

The Senior South African Swimming Championships continue through till Sunday, December 7.
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