RYAN Williams smashed his own Namibian senior discus throw record at Athletics Namibia’s Grand Prix 4 on Saturday, but due to administrative bungling and incompetence it cannot be recorded as such.
Williams, who is still only 20 years old, had a great throw of 56,70m, which was nearly three metres further than his Namibian senior record of 53,92m that he set last year, but since a plastic measuring tape was used instead of a steel one, the record cannot be recognised.
Athletics Namibia president Erwin Naimwaka said they did not have the correct equipment due to a lack of funds.
“We do not have such a measuring tape. We are trying to upgrade our equipment, but it’s a matter of resources and it costs money. We made a proposal to World Athletics to ask if they could assist us to acquire new equipment but it was turned down. The proposal included a steel measuring tape and a GPS measuring system, but as long as there is a reluctance for investment we cannot improve,” he said.
Naimwaka, though, said they had the proper equipment to record track events.
“For track events we do have electronic timing and a wind gauge, while high jump can be recognised and the measuring equipment for long jump is easier to get,” he added.
Athletics coach and administrator Leonie van Rensburg, however, refuted that.
“There are two steel measuring tapes in Athletics Namibia’s possession – one in a container and one in their office, I personally handed them over to Bethold Karumendu. Erwin (Naimwaka) is the president of Athletics Namibia, but he doesn’t know what is going on there,” she said.
Van Rensburg was present during the morning session when she used her own steel measuring tape to record some great performances by the master athlete Hella Kuppe.
Competing in the women’s 80 and over category, Kuppe set new Namibian records in the javelin, shot put, hammer throw and discus events, while all of them, except for the discus were also African records.
In the shot put her distance of 6,59m broke the previous African record of 6,44; in javelin she broke the African record of 11,78m by more than three metres with a distance of 14,83m; and in the hammer throw she also broke the African record of 17,04m by more than three metres with a new record distance of 20,66m.
Kuppe also set a new Namibian record of 14,90m in the discus event, but that was outside the African record of 15,65m.
The records still need to be officially verified, but Kuppe said she was very happy to reach her target.
“I worked very hard for it because that was my goal. I started last year already and competed at Otjiwarongo and Swakop this year, but then the athletics season was interrupted by Covid 19. However, I continued training at home and then returned to the gym when it opened up again,” she said.
“I feel good and am looking forward to breaking more records at the National Championships in two weeks’ time. I want to break the discus record as well as the heavy hammer throw record, which is normally presented as part of the heptathlon throwing events,” she added.
Kuppe, who turned 80 in June, has already set a host of African age group records in track events, but has now also started to excel in field events after teaching herself the basics.
“I had to learn all of this stuff from scratch, because I was originally a sprinter and a jumper, so I attended courses to learn the basics in the throwing events,” she said.
There were several other fine senior performances at Grand Prix 4, with Sandro Diergaardt of Nampol obtaining the most points according to World Athletics’ international scoring table.
He won the men’s long jump with a distance of 7,70 metres, which amounted to 1 073 points, while Ernst Narib obtained 1 050 points for winning the 400m in 46,92 seconds.
Williams obtained 1 000 points for his discus performance, while Emmanuel Samuntu of Unam obtained 1 002 points for winning the high jump in 2,10 metres.
Samuntu and Wenceslaus Klaasman of Nampol had a fine rivalry in the high jump, with Klaasman coming second in 2,05m, for which he obtained 958 points.
Amongst the women, Nathalie Louw of Triomf Athletics Club obtained 962 points for winning the long jump in 5,83m, while Frieda Iithete of Unam, who came second with 5,35m obtained 858 points.
Hanganeni Fikunawa of Unam obtained 838 points for winning the women’s 100m in 12,80 seconds.
