Born and bred in Windhoek she dominated sprints during an era that saw her winning almost every race she participated in at Van Rhyn Primary School and Jan Mohr Secondary School.
Kalomo set the Namibian athletics scene alight in 2005 after she finished fourth in the 100m at the Coca-Cola Top Ten Club Championships at Independence Stadium in Windhoek at the age of 14.
The former University of Namibia (Unam) runner’s achievement became more significant when she condemned Charmaine Smit, a former top Namibian sprinter, into fifth place during her exciting adventure.
Her consistent form in the 100m dash also saw her being part of seven local athletes who received a scholarship from the Frank Fredericks Foundation after they shone at the Coca-Cola Frank Fredericks Athletics Invitational in 2008.
“Those were the days. I have tried my level best to win my races during my athletics years. I, however, count myself unlucky that our country didn’t invest in athletics like other countries.
“My four-year stay in Kingston, Jamaica, introduced me to a completely different world of athletics. Their young athletes with potential are already treated like seasoned athletes at a very young age.
“They receive the best attention and training possible,” she says.
Kalomo was one of the athletes who were sent to Jamaica by the Namibian government as part of a programme to receive world-class training while studying sport science.
The initiative, however, failed because of a lack of financial input by the government, which led to Kalomo only spending four years in Jamaica.
Despite this, she went on to experience one of her best athletics moments ever.
“I must thank coach Letu Hamhola for believing in me by calling me out of retirement to join the training camp in Jamaica. He told me he saw potential in me which he couldn’t allow to go to waste.
“I set a new 60m record in a time of 6,57 seconds, which still stands,” she says.
The record time was set during a star-studded Kingston Queens Grace Jackson Track Meet in 2016, which also attracted world-class female athletes like Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson, Carrie Russel and Shaniqua Ferguson.
During her school days, Kalomo’s running escapades also took her to events like the Cosafa Under-17 Championships in Swaziland and the Southern African Development Community Under-19 Youth Games in 2008.
She also represented Namibia at the All Africa Games, while she also participated in the Commonwealth Games.
Kalomo says she enjoyed her athletics career tremendously, while naming former youth sensation Merlin Diamond as her fiercest rival in the 100m and 200m races.
She was also part of the quartet comprising Globine Mayova, Tjipekapora Herunga and Lelanie Klaasman, which set the 4x100m relay record at the MVP Track Meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 2016 in a time of 45,53 seconds.
WORK, FAMILY
Kalomo’s father, Sticks Kalomo, whom she refers to as her first coach, was a footballer on the left-wing with Golden Rivers, while her mother, Annie Kalomo, was a star netball player in the centre for both Black Africa and the Namibian national netball team.
Besides athletics, Kalomo takes after her mom and also played netball at primary as well as at high school.
She was, until very recently, still dictating matters for Black Africa in the centre of the court.
She also toured with a selection of junior netball players to the Love Life Games in Durban, South Africa, in 2003.
Apart from studying sport management at Northlink College in Cape Town in South Africa after matric, Kalomo is currently employed as a receptionist/office administrator at a medical practice at Pionierspark.
“I am now working with a smile every day. I am working with two other girls in my department, so it’s fun.
“I have learnt a lot working here medicinewise, and its interesting to come across the different diseases and to see how people go through the different stages of illness,” she says.
Despite the satisfaction she gets from her job, she says it is sometimes challenging to deal with impatient patients.
