Durand leads medal charge in Egypt

Namibia’s junior team excelled at the Africa Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in Cairo to finish fourth overall on the medal table last weekend.


Namibia won a total of nine medals consisting of two gold, two silver and five bronze medals to finish fourth, behind the winners South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria. Oliver Durand was Namibia’s star performer, winning four medals in total, consisting of two gold medals in the 200m and 400m individual medley events; a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke; and a bronze in the 200m butterfly. Durand won gold in the 200m individual medley in a time of 2:04,51, which also broke the Namibian 17-18 year age group record, while his second gold came in the 400m individual medley in a new Africa Aquatics Junior Championships record of 4:26,00, which was impressively faster than his Namibian Open record by more than six seconds. Durand won a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:04,14, and a bronze medal in the 200m butterfly in a new Namibian Open record of 2:04,76, which beat his old record by nearly four seconds.


Jessica Humphrey won three medals in total, consisting of one silver and two bronze medals. She won silver in the 50m backstroke in a new Namibian Open record of 29.85, while she won bronze in the100m backstroke in 1:05,21 and another bronze in the 200m backstroke in 2:24,68. Namibia’s women’s team of Madison Bergh, Jessica Humphrey, Roselinda Matyayi and Ariana Naukosho won a bronze medal in the 4x100m medley relay in a time of 4:36,18. The mixed relay team of Oliver Durand, Luke Beukes, Madison Bergh and Jessica Humphrey won a bronze medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay with a time of 3:48,16.


South Africa were the overall winners with a total of 52 medals (25 gold,17 silver and 10 bronze), followed by Egypt with 43 medals (10 gold, 19 silver and 14 bronze), and Nigeria with four medals (three gold and one bronze).


Team Namibia, accompanied by coach Jean Michael Leitner, were fourth with two gold, two silver and five bronze medals, followed by Morocco (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze), Zimbabwe (1 gold, 6 bronze) and Algeria (1 silver, 4 bronze).