Four more individual championship records, two relay records, a 0.04-second finish, the hosts' best session yet and a 13th nation in the water on a packed Day 2 evening in Gaborone
GABORONE, Botswana – 3 September 2026 – The halfway point of the XXII Africa Aquatics Zone IV Swimming Championships arrived on Thursday evening with the two leading nations locked together. After 16 individual finals in the 200m Freestyle and 50m Butterfly and four 4x100m Freestyle Relays, South Africa and Namibia sit level on 18 individual golds apiece, Namibia ahead on total medals by 41 to 38. Behind them the story of the session was spread across the whole continent: Angola's first gold of the meet, Madagascar's first silver, Botswana's biggest medal haul, and the arrival of Lesotho, bringing the number of nations competing to thirteen.
Cocci and Nel: two more records for South Africa
Gio Cocci's third record in three sessions was arguably his most complete. The 14-year-old swam 1:57.26 in the Boys 13-14 200m Freestyle to beat Matthew Goller's championship mark of 1:58.13, winning by 16.17 seconds, the widest margin of the evening, and then anchored the South African Boys 14 & Under relay to gold. Across four sessions he now holds three individual championship records and has been the fastest swimmer of his age in the pool in every stroke he has contested.
Juan Nel, two days after an 800m silver and a morning after missing the 200m Backstroke record by 0.86, took Oliver Durand's Boys 15-16 200m Freestyle record of 1:57.91 down to 1:56.51, with Caleb Eaton second and Namibia's Rodney Feris and Victor Engelhard third and fourth. Reba Moleko made it three South African records for the session with a 26.42 in the Boys 13-14 50m Butterfly, 0.64 inside the mark set by Everraud Raynard, with team-mate Malakai Seppings second and Mozambique's Goncalo Basto taking bronze by 0.05.
The race of the session: De Sousa and Johnsen both go under the record
The Girls 15-16 200m Freestyle produced the finish of the evening and, in a sense, two record-breakers. Namibia's Vitoria De Sousa and Zimbabwe's Alexis Johnsen raced stroke for stroke to the wall, De Sousa touching in 2:10.40 and Johnsen in 2:10.50, both inside Paige van der Westhuizen's championship record of 2:10.53. One tenth of a second separated gold from silver; Johnsen's time would have been a record in any other year. Saskya Kistnasami of South Africa took bronze in 2:15.73.
It was not the closest finish of the session. That belonged to the Girls 13-14 200m Freestyle, where Zimbabwe's Kaylea Rogers, 13, out-touched Tyla Thomas by 0.04 seconds, 2:14.31 to 2:14.35, to claim her first gold of the championships after four silver and bronze medals. Thomas, who set a record on Thursday morning, finished the day with silver and a relay gold. Aqeelah Williams took bronze. Four other finals were decided by less than half a second.
Namibia's six golds
Namibia's evening was built on Oliver Durand, Jessica Humphrey and the relay squads. Durand swam 1:51.96 in the Boys 17 & Over 200m Freestyle, the fastest swim of the championships at any distance, with Botswana's Rayhan Khonat pushing him all the way in 1:52.73 and Zimbabwe's Connor Grist third. Humphrey won both the Girls 17 & Over 200m Freestyle, by 10 seconds from Zambia's Winnie Mbewe and Eswatini's Hayley Hoy, and the 50m Butterfly, ahead of Botswana's Maxine Egner and team-mate Molina Smalley. Rodney Feris took the Boys 15-16 50m Butterfly by 0.91 from Kyle Snyders and Botswana's Tema Modirelabangwe, and Luke Beukes won the Boys 17 & Over 50m Butterfly in 24.89, the fastest butterfly of the meet, from Seychelles' Adam Moncherry and Botswana's Mmusi Matthews.
Then the relays. Namibia's Girls 15 & Over quartet of De Sousa, Smalley, Trisha Mutumbulua and Humphrey swam 4:03.39 to break the championship record of 4:08.57, with South Africa's 4:07.57 in second also inside the old mark. The Boys 15 & Over team of Durand, Arkell Wellmann, Feris and Beukes then took Mauritius's record of 3:37.94 down to 3:30.54, a margin of more than seven seconds, with Botswana second in 3:40.04 and South Africa third.
Angola's first gold, and the Morais question answered
Wezza Lukenya Morais of Angola won the Girls 13-14 50m Butterfly in 29.68, beating Zimbabwe's Acacia Watson by 0.39 and finishing within four tenths of Jemmah Roman's championship record. It is Angola's first gold medal of these championships, and in a fitting twist the race also settled a question that had lingered since Day 1: Wendy Lukenya Morais, who shares a name, an age and a nation with the champion, finished fifth in the same final, confirming that Angola has two 13-year-old Lukenya Morais swimmers in Gaborone rather than one. Barcelona Xaba of South Africa and Botswana's Jade Chilisa dead-heated for bronze in 30.16.
Madagascar had its own breakthrough. Glorio Koty, 13, seeded 2:22.49 in the Boys 13-14 200m Freestyle, swam 2:13.43 to take silver behind Cocci, a nine-second improvement and the island nation's first silver medal of the meet. Madagascar's Abraham Solofoharijaona improved 3.27 seconds in the Boys 11-12 50m Butterfly and Lauren Andrianirina was fifth in the Girls 17 & Over 200m Freestyle.
And in lane one of the Boys 17 & Over 50m Butterfly, Teboho Sekoloto of Lesotho swam 40.83 to become the first athlete from the mountain kingdom to race at these championships, lifting the number of competing nations to thirteen.
The hosts' best night
Botswana won eleven medals in the session: eight individual, three relay. Lame Thomba, 12, opened proceedings by winning the Girls 11-12 200m Freestyle by 4.56 seconds from Mauritius's Blaizya Zuel and Seychelles' Emma Liu-Chit-Chon, the host nation's first gold since Melodi Saleshando on Wednesday. Saleshando herself took silver in the Girls 15-16 50m Butterfly behind Jemmah Roman, 29.81 to 29.71, with Namibia's Roselinda Matyayi third and Maya Mgcina and Alexis Johnsen tying for fourth. Khonat's silver, Egner's silver, Matthews' bronze, Modirelabangwe's bronze and Chilisa's shared bronze completed the individual haul; the Girls 14 & Under and Boys 14 & Under relays both took bronze behind South Africa and Zimbabwe, and the Boys 15 & Over team's silver was the hosts' best relay result of the meet.
Elsewhere on the podium
Conrad Opperman of Seychelles won the Boys 11-12 200m Freestyle in 2:12.56, his fourth individual gold, but only by 0.34 from Zimbabwe's Wade Cameron, who then won the Boys 11-12 50m Butterfly from sixth seed in 30.53 ahead of Namibia's Oelof Badenhorst and Mozambique's Célio Aliang. Cameron and Badenhorst each finished the session with two medals. Blaizya Zuel added a Mauritian gold in the Girls 11-12 50m Butterfly, from fourth seed, ahead of Zambia's Isabella Hesse and Seychelles' Maia Moustache. Mozambique's Kaamil Carimo was fifth in the Boys 15-16 200m Freestyle and Angola's Mario Joao Baptista sixth, both with improvements of around five seconds.
Malawi's swimmers produced the most consistent improvements of the session: eight of twelve bettered their seed times, including Aziel Mwandira (10.7 per cent), Tumiso Jere (10.3 per cent) and Amber Chisi (9.8 per cent), all in the 11-12 butterfly finals. Eswatini's Hayley Hoy took bronze in the Girls 17 & Over 200m Freestyle, her third medal of the championships.
What the numbers say
Half the field, 124 of 250 swimmers, improved on their seed time, with butterfly (73 of 139) more productive than the 200m freestyle events (51 of 111). Top seeds won only 10 of 16 finals, the lowest strike rate of the meet so far; the six upsets came from Rogers, De Sousa, Zuel, Cameron, Roman and Humphrey (50m Butterfly). Fields were the largest of the championships, with the four 13-14 and 15-16 butterfly finals each drawing 18 to 20 swimmers.
Namibia topped the session points with 325, ahead of Zimbabwe (281), Botswana (269) and South Africa (249). Twelve of the thirteen nations won a medal or improved on at least half their swims.
Medal Table – Day 2, Session 4 (Individual Events)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Namibia | 6 | 1 | 4 | 11 |
| 2 | South Africa | 4 | 4 | 3 | 11 |
| 3 | Zimbabwe | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| 4 | Botswana | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 |
| 5 | Seychelles | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 6 | Mauritius | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | Angola | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | Zambia | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Madagascar | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | Mozambique | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 11 | Eswatini | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| – | Malawi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| – | Lesotho | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Two bronze medals awarded in the Girls 13-14 50m Butterfly (tie).
Cumulative Medal Table – After Day 2 (Individual Events, Sessions 1–4)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Africa | 18 | 13 | 7 | 38 |
| 2 | Namibia | 18 | 10 | 13 | 41 |
| 3 | Seychelles | 6 | 4 | 5 | 15 |
| 4 | Zimbabwe | 5 | 9 | 6 | 20 |
| 5 | Botswana | 3 | 7 | 7 | 17 |
| 6 | Mauritius | 3 | 4 | 3 | 10 |
| 7 | Zambia | 2 | 5 | 1 | 8 |
| 8 | Angola | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 9 | Eswatini | 0 | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| 10 | Madagascar | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 11 | Malawi | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| 11 | Mozambique | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| – | Lesotho | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ranked by gold, then silver, then bronze.
Cumulative Relay Medal Table – After Day 2
| Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Africa | 4 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| Namibia | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Zimbabwe | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Botswana | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Seychelles | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Zambia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Relay medals are tracked separately from the individual table.
Championship Records – Session 4
| Event | Swimmer / Team | Nation | New Record | Previous Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boys 13-14 200m Freestyle | Gio Cocci | South Africa | 1:57.26 | 1:58.13 (M. Goller, RSA) |
| Girls 15-16 200m Freestyle | Vitoria De Sousa | Namibia | 2:10.40 | 2:10.53 (P. van der Westhuizen, ZIM) |
| Boys 15-16 200m Freestyle | Juan Nel | South Africa | 1:56.51 | 1:57.91 (O. Durand, NAM) |
| Boys 13-14 50m Butterfly | Reba Moleko | South Africa | 26.42 | 27.06 (E. Raynard, RSA) |
| Girls 15 & Over 4x100m Freestyle Relay | Namibia | Namibia | 4:03.39 | 4:08.57 (Namibia) |
| Boys 15 & Over 4x100m Freestyle Relay | Namibia | Namibia | 3:30.54 | 3:37.94 (Mauritius) |
Alexis Johnsen (ZIM, 2:10.50) and the South African Girls 15 & Over relay (4:07.57) also swam inside the previous records in second place. Records as flagged on the official results sheet, subject to ratification.
Looking ahead
Nine individual championship records have now fallen in four sessions, and the two nations at the top cannot be separated on gold. Day 3 opens on Friday morning at the University of Botswana pool with the second half of the programme, and for the first time in these championships, the medal table lead is genuinely up for grabs.
