15 Dec 2015

Botswana Swimming Sports Association (BSSA) season ended with the hosting of the national finals at the University of Botswana. 

Swimmers battled it out on the Olympic size 50 meters UB swimming pool, while others recorded the best of times. 

Botswana’s elite swimmers and number one ranking swimmer based in the USA, Naomi Ruele graced the event. 

Interest was on Naomi Ruele, Bonita Imsirovic, David Van Der Colff and Williem Van Niekerk as they were under a programme to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. 

Ruele scored a new personal best (PB) when she did 26.52s beating her previous best time of 27.37s on the 50 meters backstroke. Just falling out with 35 split seconds of the 26.17s Olympic qualifying time requirement. 

However, she scored a bit low on the 100m backstroke. She scored 105.36s adding 40 more split seconds. 

Despite her falling short from qualifying for her first Olympic appearance just yet, the 18-year-old African Youth Games silver medalist came out and conquered the event. She walked away with five gold medals. She won the 50m butterfly, 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke and 100m breaststroke and 100 backstroke.  The second ranking Botswana swimmer in the ladies side, Bonita Imsirovic had her own share of success as she pocketed three gold medals. 

Imsirovic won the 50m, 100m and 200m breastroke. The 20- year-old from Mahalapye clocked 3:03.05s on the 200m breaststroke ahead of Katlego Solomon of BDF Dolphins. 

According to her seeding time, she did add some time against her last swim, which she seeded at a good 2:51.41s. She had to work hard to cut off 19s from her best seeding time. 

On the male side, the top two ranking swimmers of David Van Der Colff and Andre Van der Merwe also graced the event. 

18-year-old Van Der Colff from Dmss Gators swimming club won himself three gold medals from 100m breastroke, 100 backstroke and the 400m freestyle. 

The young lad showed some character and a cut above the rest of the competitors. Though his time in the 400m freestyle was disappointing, considering he seeded 4:15.91, he fell short with 6s to meet the required 3:58.51. 

He won the 100m backstroke ahead of the second placed Williem Van Niekerk who arrived at 1:16.88s. He also fell short to qualify for the big event with 3 seconds.  

Van der Merwe walked with four gold medals and silver. He won 50m, 100m, 200m freestyle and 200 individual medley and came second to Michael Botha for a silver in the 100m butterfly. 

Imsirovic said she did not perform as she wished. She attributed her performance to having missed a few training sessions because they clashed with her examinations. 

She also noted that due to the bad weather on Saturday, she got tired because they had to postpone some events which eventually took a toll on her. 

“Beside that I should commend BSSA for the event, because this time around they did a better job with regard to organising of the event,” she said. 

As for the overall performance of the season, she noted a good time record when she competed at the African Games in Congo and the World Championships in Russia. 

For her part, Ruele said, “I am happy with my performance, because I have just got back to training after a right arm dislocation.” Ends