Africa-Press – Namibia. FOR the first time in the history of Namibian swimming, four physically challenged swimmers are part of the Bank Windhoek Long-Course National Swimming Championships, which started on Thursday.
The national competition at the Olympia Swimming Pool in Windhoek runs until Sunday.
The four swimmers are Mateus Angula (29), Caitlin Botha (26), Jerome Rooi (18) and Namasiku van der Linden (15).
Angula is an accomplished para-swimmer who won his first medal in 2018 at the Kenya National Paralympic Committee National Open and Para-Swimming Championships.
He has represented Namibia on the international swimming stage at the World Para-Swimming Championships in Mexico (2017), Great Britain (2019) and Portugal.
Botha has been a para-swimmer since 2016 and has participated in regional competitions.
She also works as an assistant at the Dolphins Swimming Club.
Botha is set to be reclassified in Europe this year as there are no classification events for para-swimmers in Africa, necessitating foreign travel and the expense it entails.
Rooi and Van der Linden are both new to para-swimming and are set to be classified this year.
Classification will allow them to compete regionally and internationally.
They participated in the 2022 Namibian Swimming Federation’s Namibian National Short-Course Championships at Swakopmund.
However, their first Long-Course National Championships will be this weekend’s competition.
Para-swimming is the sport term used for swimmers with a physical, visual or intellectual impairment.
The first step towards being a para-swimmer is to join a swimming programme.
Once able to swim and race, the next step is for a swimmer is to be classified.
In total 184 athletes from six clubs and the International Paralympic Committee are participating in 1 628 entries with 17 individual and five relay events.
The championships is sanctioned by World Para-Swimming and supported by the Namibia National Paralympic Committee.
Entrance to the competition venue is free.
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