NAMIBIAN wrestler Jason Afrikaner fell short of clinching a bronze medal on Sunday after he lost two bouts in the men’s 58kg Greco-Roman wrestling contest at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.
In a media statement issued on Sunday, Team Namibia’s Manager Ndeulipula Hamutumwa said Afrikaner battled it out in two groups representing seven different nations. Afrikaner was the first Namibian athlete to compete in the Summer Youth Olympic Games, which started in Singapore on Saturday. Following his win, by pinfall, over Hungarian Adrian Kranitz in the opening match, Afrikaner was then matched up against Urmatbek Amatov of Kyrgyzstan, but he lost that bout by four points. He then went on to battle it out with Artur Suleymanov from Russia for the third overall position, but he again lost that contest by three points – missing out on the bronze medal. He finished fourth overall out of the seven countries that participated in the competition. Meanwhile, swimmer Quinton Deli was expected to compete yesterday. ‘Deli will be competing in his first 200 metre free-style heat. He is also showing a lot of confidence in his approach towards the Games,’ said Hamutumwa.This is the first Youth Olympics, a 12-day event in which 3,600 athletes aged 14 to 18 from 204 national Olympic committees compete in 26 sports.Youth Olympics organizers have sought to emphasize the educational and cultural benefits of bringing together teenage athletes from around the world so they are not keeping a medal tally.In an unofficial medal tally, Russia leads with 11, followed by China with eight and the United States and Italy with five each after the second day of competition.Politics threatened to overshadow the games after an Iranian athlete cited injury before withdrawing from the boys taekwondo final against an Israeli athlete late Sunday. Another potential issue was avoided yesterday when both an Israeli and Iranian swimmer competed in different heats of the 200-meter individual medley. The Iranian failed to advance past the first heat. – Nampa
