July 2001 Sport News Headlines

Namibia will be represented by six athletes at the World Athletics Championships (WAC) which start in Edmonton, Canada on Friday August 3.

Frank Fredericks and Christie van Wyk will compete in the men's sprints; Lucketz Swartbooi in the men's marathon; Stefan Louw in the men's long jump; Agnes Samaria in the women's 800m and Elizabeth Mongudhi in the women's marathon.

400m hurdler Willie Smith also qualified for the WAC, after running below 50 seconds on four occasions, but he recently withdrew from the WAC due to university exams.

The team will be the largest ever Namibian delegation at the WAC.

Fredericks has been Namibia's top athlete for the last decade, having won a gold medal and three silver medals at previous WAC.

At the WAC in Spain in 1999 he withdrew from the finals of both the 100m and 200m due to an injury and since then he has been dogged by injury.

A few days before the 200m final at last year's Sydney Olympic Games Fredericks announced his withdrawal due to injury and since then he has hardly at any big meetings.

Fredericks competed in three meetings during the last month and qualified for the Edmonton WAC with a time of 20,62 seconds - nearly a second behind his personal best time of 19,68 seconds.

His low-key build-up could, however, work in his favour as there won't be any pressure on him, while none of the other top contenders have posted impressive times this year.

The fastest time this year of 20,05 seconds was posted by unknown American athlete Raymond Clay.

Christie van Wyk's personal best time over the 200m is 20,50 seconds, while his best for the year is 20,62 seconds.

He also cracked the 10 second barrier in the 100m although the time was not recognised due to a strong tail wind.

Lucketz Swartbooi has been in impressive form this year, winning the Lucky Star and Dolphin Marathons at the coast, setting two new half-marathon records at the Midgard Marathon and the National Half-marathon Championships and winning several shorter distance events in South Africa.

His best marathon time of the year of two hours 16 minutes is however ten minutes slower than the world's best time this year which was set by Josephat Kiprono of Kenya and Swartbooi could struggle in an event where the competition will be very strong.

He, however, shocked the world in 1993, when as a virtual unknown he nearly won the marathon at the WAC in Stuttgart.

After leading for most of the race, South Africa's Mark Plaatjies passed him with less than a kilometre remaining to win the race, while Swartbooi hung on for the silver medal.

If Swartbooi paces himself better he could once again spring a surprise.

Stefan Louw could be a medal contender in the long jump, after setting the eighth best distance of 8,16 metres in the world this year.

Louw also jumped 8,26 metres at an event in South Africa in February, but it was not recognised because the meeting did not fulfil the requirements of the IAAF.

The best distance in the world this year of 8,41 metres was set by James Beckford of Jamaica, but this is still a long way off Mike Powell's world record of 8,95 metres.

Agnes Samaria will be attending her first WAC after beating the 800m qualifying standard on several occasions in South Africa this year.

Samaria consistently set good times during the Absa and Engen series, including a new national record of 2 minutes 00,81 seconds.

Samaria, however, can expect strong competition from the likes of Maria Mutola of Mozambique, who set the year's best time of 1:57:11, while she also did not feature too prominently on the European circuit last month.

Elizabeth Mongudhi has been in excellent form this year, winning the South African Marathon Championships; coming tenth in the Two Oceans Ultra-marathon; and setting two new half-marathon records in Swakopmund and at Midgard.

Her best time of 2 hours 36 minutes is, however, way behind the year's best of 2:23:11, set by Yoko Shibui of Japan, but athletics coach Quinton Steele Botes believes that she is a fighter.

"I saw it at the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia in 1998, how she fought all the way to win the bronze medal. What is also encouraging is that she has performed consistently well over shorter distances right up to the ultra-marathon. It shows that she has the speed as well as the endurance, while she has also now fully recovered from the shin injury which forced her to retire from the Sydney Olympics," he said.

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