Exciting duels expected at National Athletics Champs

SOME exciting duels and possible qualification for the World Athletics Championships (WAC) can be expected when the Namibia Senior Athletics Championships takes place at the Independence Stadium on Saturday.

With the National Championships being the last local senior event of the season, Namibia’s top athletes will be aiming to qualify for the 2017 World Athletics Championships which take place in London in August.

So far only four marathon athletes have reached the qualifying times, namely Beata Naigambo, Helalia Johannes and Lavinia Haitope amongst the women, and Reonard Namupala amongst the men, but it is doubtful whether any more will qualify at the National Championships.

According to times posted at the three-leg Coca Cola Regional Club Championships series, the only athlete who has an outside chance of qualifying is Ernst Narib in the men’s 400m.

He has a personal best time of 46,17 which is just outside Daniel Haitembu’s national record of 46,14, and a season’s best time of 47,89. He will, however, have to improve significantly if he hopes to reach the WAC qualifying time of 45,50.

While none of Namibia’s other senior athletes have come close to qualifying times for the WAC, some of Namibia’s top juniors have stolen the limelight with impressive performances.

Danie Geldenhuys of Triomf Athletics Club recently qualified for the World Youth Athletics Championships in Nairobi, Kenya in July when he set a time of 49,03 seconds in the 400m, which was within the qualifying time of 49,25 seconds.

The 16-year-old Sade de Sousa has also posted some impressive times in the women’s sprints this season, while she also beat senior champion Globine Majova at the third leg of the Club Championships series in Swakopmund.

Her best 100m time this season of 12,43 seconds is close to the World Youth Championships’ qualifying time of 12,15 seconds, while she also posted a hand time of 11,93 seconds, which unfortunately doesn’t count for qualifying purposes.

“I’m very excited about the performances of our junior athletes – it gives us optimism for the future,” Athletics Namibia president Erwin Naimwaka said.

The men’s sprints should also see some exciting duels with Dantago Gurirab, Even Tjiviju, Hitjiverue Kaanjuka and Ismael Tjiramba all in with a chance of winning gold.

Saturday’s event will be the last senior track and field competition on the local calendar, but according to Naimwaka athletes will still have other opportunities to try and qualify for the WAC.

“Some of our athletes will compete at a regional invitational event in Gaborone, Botswana next weekend, while the Southern African Regional Athletics Championships take place in June in Harare, Zimbabwe. If resources allow we can possibly also take some athletes to other competitions,” he said.

The Senior National Championships was originally supposed to take place in Oshakati, but Naimwaka said a lack of resources necessitated the change of venue.

“We initially wanted to hold the national championships in Oshakati, but we are now facing some financial challenges. Most of the athletes come from the Khomas and central regions so it would have been too costly to take them all to the north,” he said.

Saturday’s National Championships start at 07h00 with the men’s 10 000m, and will be concluded with the men and women’s 100m sprints starting at 13h00, and the 4x100m relays starting at 13h30.

The prize giving ceremony is scheduled for 14h00.

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