Twenty-Eight Each: The Deadlock Holds Through Six Sessions as Cocci Sets a Fifth Record and Mauritius Wins Two Titles by a Combined 0.14 Seconds

Four more championship records, three finals decided by six hundredths or less, a golden double for Zimbabwe's youngsters and Lesotho's women make their debut on a breathless Day 3 evening in Gaborone

GABORONE, Botswana – 4 September 2026 – Six sessions, 96 individual finals, and South Africa and Namibia have still not been separated on gold. The Day 3 evening session of the XXII Africa Aquatics Zone IV Swimming Championships, sixteen finals across the 50m Backstroke and 100m Breaststroke, ended with each nation on 28 individual titles, Namibia one medal ahead on the overall count, 63 to 62. Zimbabwe's three golds moved them clear into third, Mauritius won twice by margins no wider than a fingertip, and four more championship records fell, bringing the total for the meet to fifteen.

Cocci, again

Gio Cocci's fifth championship record was his most emphatic sprint. The 14-year-old swam 27.44 in the Boys 13-14 50m Backstroke to take 1.70 seconds off the mark set by his own team-mate Ramano Sefehle, winning by 2.44 from Zimbabwe's J Wes Jared, with Ethan Francis of South Africa third and Eswatini's Josea Potgieter a 1.51-second improvement away in fourth. Cocci has now won six individual golds from six starts, and holds championship records in the 100m and 200m Backstroke, 200m Freestyle, 100m Butterfly and now the 50m Backstroke.

Sefehle responded in the next boys' final. In the Boys 15-16 50m Backstroke he swam 27.65 to break Tendry Rakotobe's record of 28.30, holding off Namibia's Rodney Feris, whose 28.38 was itself within eight hundredths of the old mark, with Seychelles' Nasri Jean-Baptiste third after a 1.22-second improvement. Jayden Ciampi completed a South African record hat-trick with a 1:06.05 in the Boys 15-16 100m Breaststroke, beating Caio Lobo's 1:06.73 by 3.79 seconds from Eswatini's Luca Fraser, who took a third silver of the meet behind Ciampi, and Juan Nel. Malawi's Tasunje Mkavea was fourth by 0.43.

Namibia's record came from Roselinda Matyayi, whose 30.54 in the Girls 15-16 50m Backstroke took 0.45 from Scarlett Le Roux's mark and held off Botswana's Melodi Saleshando by 0.56, Saleshando's 31.10 finishing just outside the old record too. Maya Mgcina of South Africa was third.

Mauritius: two golds, 0.14 seconds

Mauritius won two titles in the session and needed a combined fourteen hundredths of a second to do it. Lukas Chan Chuen won the Boys 17 & Over 50m Backstroke in 28.14, beating Botswana's Takundanashe Gondo by 0.13, with Rayhan Khonat completing a home one-two behind him. Then Alicia Kok Shun, 21, won the Girls 17 & Over 100m Breaststroke by the smallest margin the timing system records, 1:15.56 to Molina Smalley's 1:15.57, with Botswana's Yun-suh Chang third after a 1.23-second improvement. Chang's bronze was her third of the championships.

The tightest boys' final of the evening was tighter still at the top three. In the Boys 13-14 100m Breaststroke, Zimbabwe's Tatenda Mujati, 13, won in 1:18.24, Madagascar's Manuh Andrianarison took silver in 1:18.30, and South Africa's Malakai Seppings bronze in 1:18.32: three swimmers, three nations, eight hundredths of a second. It was Madagascar's second silver of the meet and its best breaststroke result in Gaborone.

Zimbabwe's young sprinters

Wade Cameron, 12, won the Boys 11-12 50m Backstroke from sixth seed in 32.58, a four-second improvement and the largest by any winner in the session, beating Conrad Opperman by 0.75 with Namibia's Patrick Durand third. It was Cameron's third individual gold, all won this week against the same 11-year-old rival, and his 32.58 fell 0.28 short of Mulenga Cole's championship record. Amaranthine Dunkley, 13, then won the Girls 13-14 100m Breaststroke from third seed in 1:18.44, beating Ava Lorenzen and Barcelona Xaba, who had shared the medals in the 50m breaststroke on Day 1. Kaylea Rogers added bronze in the Girls 13-14 50m Backstroke behind Lorenzen and Zambia's Kira Haabazoka, whose 32.20 was a 1.49-second improvement.

Namibia's five

Namibia's golds were spread across the age groups. Aaliyah Losper, 12, won the Girls 11-12 50m Backstroke from fourth seed in 34.65, edging Seychelles' Emma Liu-Chit-Chon by 0.45, with Botswana's Lame Thomba third. Oelof Badenhorst took the Boys 11-12 100m Breaststroke by 3.06 seconds from Mozambique's Kael Rodrigues and Conrad Opperman. Jessica Humphrey won the Girls 17 & Over 50m Backstroke, her sixth individual title, from Seychelles' Aaliyah Palestrini and Zimbabwe's Tanatswa Chandiwana. And Oliver Durand won the Boys 17 & Over 100m Breaststroke in 1:03.19, the widest winning margin of the evening at 4.99 seconds, ahead of Botswana's Khalil Sethi and Eswatini's Damien De Sousa.

Jemmah Roman completed South Africa's five golds with the Girls 15-16 100m Breaststroke, 1:16.97, from team-mate Aphelele Mhlongo and Botswana's Matipaishe Gondo, whose 1:18.50 was a 1.46-second improvement and the host nation's fifth medal of the session.

The wider podium

Zambia's Namwezi Mulligan won the Girls 11-12 100m Breaststroke in 1:27.04 from Angola's Beatriz Jamesina Scott, 11, who took 9.29 seconds off her seed for silver, and team-mate Tamika Njovu, the morning's 100m Butterfly champion. Mozambique's Rodrigues silver was the nation's second of the meet, and Kwicia Nchumali's 1.40-second improvement for fifth in the Girls 13-14 50m Backstroke was Mozambique's best placing of the evening.

Lesotho, which had sent one swimmer to Thursday's session, fielded three on Friday. Kealeboha Khama became the first Lesotho woman to complete a final at these championships, in the Girls 15-16 50m Backstroke, and Khobotle Bokae finished eleventh in the Boys 17 & Over 50m Backstroke to register Lesotho's first team points of the meet. Malawi's Ian Chongwe was seventh in the Boys 15-16 50m Backstroke with a 1.47-second improvement, and nine of Malawi's fifteen swimmers bettered their entry times, the highest conversion rate of any delegation.

What the numbers say

Ninety-eight of 228 swimmers (43 per cent) improved on their seed, backstroke (56 of 122) proving easier to convert than breaststroke (42 of 106). The age pattern persisted: 64 of 127 swimmers aged 14 and under improved, against 34 of 101 aged 15 and over. Top seeds won 11 of 16 finals; the upsets came from Losper, Cameron, Dunkley, Roman and Kok Shun. Seven finals were decided by less than a second, three by less than a tenth.

Namibia topped the session points with 318, ahead of Zimbabwe (277), South Africa (229) and Botswana (221). Twelve of the thirteen nations medalled or scored points; Malawi, medal-less on the night, still improved on nine swims.

Medal Table – Day 3, Session 6 (Individual Events)

Cumulative Medal Table – After Day 3 (Individual Events, Sessions 1–6)

Ranked by gold, then silver, then bronze. Relay medals are tracked separately; no relays were contested in this session. Cumulative relay standings after Day 2: South Africa 4 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze; Namibia 4 gold; Zimbabwe 4 silver, 1 bronze; Botswana 2 silver, 3 bronze; Seychelles 1 bronze; Zambia 1 bronze.

Championship Records – Session 6

Records as flagged on the official results sheet, subject to ratification. Fifteen individual championship records have now been set at these championships.

Looking ahead

With one day of competition remaining, the gold-medal race between South Africa and Namibia has been level after every single session. Zimbabwe, Seychelles, Mauritius and hosts Botswana are separated by a handful of medals in the fight for third. The final day at the University of Botswana pool on Saturday will decide all of it.