Botswana swimmer Junior Keitsile, has set a new CANA Zone IV record in the men's 12 and under 50 metres buttefly at the on-going swimming championships.
Keitsile clocked 28.98, shattering the old record of 30.04 in the event winning a gold medal for Botswana.
He was followed by Rafael Bredel of Angola with 31.42, while position three went to Olivier Durand of Namibia.
He said in an interview that his mission was to win the race, which he described tough and setting a new record was encouraging.
“I am happy and I am aware that some people might think I am too ambitious, but my aim is to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. It is possible, I want to be the youngest swimmer at the Olympics, I just have to focus and work very hard,” he said.
Keitsile in the morning session showed his resilience when he won a silver medal in the 50 metres backstroke with a time of 34.00.
In the 200 metres and over, 200 metre freestyle James Freeman did not disappoint as he delivered yet another gold for Botswana after stopping the clock in 1:56.33.
Andile Bekker also gave Batswana something to brag about, winning gold with a time of 1:58.60 in the 200 metres freestyle in the 15-16 years category.
In the mens 17 and over 200 metres breaststroke Ethan Fischer won a silver medal with 2:29.26 while in the 15-16 years 200 metres freestyle Maxine Egner clocked 2:10.53 to win a silver medal for Botswana.
In the 4x100 metre men’s freestyle relay team which was made up of Andile Bekker, Ethan Fischer, Solom Dzingai and James Freeman won a bronze medal.
Meanwhile as of Friday, Zimbabwe remained on top of the medal table with 15 gold, 12 silver and 10 bronze, followed by Namibia with 13 gold, eight silver and 13 bronze. Sitting on position three is Mozambique with six gold, two silver and two bronze, South Africa occupies position four with five gold, 12 silver and nine bronze while the host, Botswana has accumulated five gold, seven silver and four bronze medals.
STORY AND PHOTOS: ANASTACIA SIBANDA