Hamutumwa urges early Olympic qualifiers

TEAM Namibia’s Chef de Mission to the Olympic Games,
Ndeulipulwa Hamutumwa, has called on athletes to qualify as early as possible for the global sport spectacle.

The Games are slated for London from July 27 to August 12 and athletes can still qualify one month before the start of the Olympics, but the Namibia National Olympic Committee (NNOC) wants the athletes to qualify earlier so that they can have sufficient time to prepare.’We want athletes to qualify much earlier in order to start preparations early in their various competitions,’ Hamutumwa said yesterday.According to Hamutumwa, the NNOC wants to conclude the list of qualified athletes by the end of this month.The athletes who have qualified thus far are cyclist Dan Craven, shottist Gaby Ahrens, long-distance runners Helalia Johannes and Beata Naigambo, 400-metres runner Tjipekapora Herunga, as well as athletes with disabilities – Ananias Shikongo, Reginald Benade, Johanna Benson, Martin Aloysius, Frans Paulus, and Ruben Soreseb.’I am confident that this time we will be able to send a strong team and will do better,’ Hamutumwa stressed.At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, Reginald Benade won Namibia’s first – and so far only – Paralympic medal: a bronze in the discus.On funding, Hamutumwa said the NNOC and the government will put funding together and the NNOC will also engage the private sector.London will become the first city to host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1908 and in 1948. – Nampa