Africa-Press – Namibia. XANDER Skinner and Ronan Wantenaar represented Namibia with distinction at the 15th Fina World Swimming Championship in Abu Dhabi last month.
The 23-year-old Skinner set personal best times as well as new Namibian Open records in the 100m freestyle and the 200m freestyle events.
In the 100m freestyle he came second in Heat 6 in a time of 48,40 seconds, which gave him the 31st fastest time overall out of the 12 heats, while he was also the third fastest African swimmer.
Youssef Ramadan of Egypt set the eighth fastest heat time of 46,98 seconds, while South Africa’s Chad Le Clos set the 23rd fastest heat time of 47,83.
In the 200m freestyle, Skinner came third in Heat 4 in 1:47,66, which was the 35th fastest heat time out of eight heats, while he was also the second fastest African, behind Marwan Elkamash of Egypt, who had the 26th fastest overall time of 1:46,11.
Skinner, who is currently attending McKendree University in the United States on a swimming scholarship said the coach’s support helped him a lot.
“It motivated me in the sense that someone other than yourself, friends and family believes in you, someone that I only spoke over the phone with and someone that reached out to me from a different continent saying ‘I want you on my team.’ McKendree was a brand new program at the time and the coach and I talked about how we want to make this a successful program together,” he said.
“I think it taught me a lot about myself and what I am capable of reaching. It showed me a lot of the world and that the world of swimming is a lot bigger than just swimming in Namibia or even Africa for that matter. I learned what it means to be on a swimming team that races every gala with one common goal and that is to win. The environment here is extremely supportive and everyone on your team wants you to succeed and swim fast,” he added.
During 2022 Skinner will compete in two important galas in the United States – Out Conference Championship and the Collegiate Nationals, and he said that he hopes to become a professional swimmer.
“I am ready to take my swimming to the next level. I am currently looking at professional teams here in America to continue my training and to turn professional,” he said.
“Since I was a young kid my goal has always been to compete at the Olympic Games – that has always been my biggest dream. The next Olympics is only in 2024 but between now and then there will be a lot of competitions to improve my times. All the world championships are always on my list of galas to compete at and I am positive that I will be swimming at every available competition,” he said, adding that his goals will not stop at the 2024 Olympics.
“I am going to continue swimming professionally as long as I can. I want to retire one day and tell myself that I have given it absolutely everything. Another goal of mine is to get more people to continue swimming past high school. We have so much talent in Namibia and scholarships like mine are all over America for anyone who is willing to work hard and has the desire to be the best. I want to be remembered as Namibia’s greatest swimmer,” he said.
Wantenaar, meanwhile, set the 40th fastest heat time of 1:01,36 in the 100m breaststroke, which was just outside his national record of 1:01,35, while he was also the third fastest African, behind Youssef Elkamash of Egypt (26th overall in a time of 59,18) and Abobakr Abass of Sudan (37th overall in 1:01,15).
In the 100m individual medley Wantenaar set the 34th fastest heat time of 56,92 which was just outside his national record of 56,88, while he was also the fastest African in this event.
Wantenaar was awarded a Fina scholarship at the FINA Development Centre in Kazan, Russia, which was recently extended for a second year.
“The Fina scholarship has helped me a lot and I see improvements of my times that I did not think were possible in such a short amount of time,” he said.
“The scholarship is definitely motivating me and it’s been keeping me active and very busy. As we are training in a very advanced facility, while we get our fair share of competitions in Kazan, so we get to see top athletes compete, which is very inspiring and keeps me motivated,” he added.
“My goals are to qualify for the Olympics and to make the semi-finals or even the finals at a major competition in the future. I would definitely like to break some more national records, but I want to set records that will stand for many years. I would also like to get a diploma for something sport-related, so that I could possibly be part of swimming in Namibia,” he said.
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