TJIPEKAPORA Herunga came first in the women’s 400m final in a time of 52,70 seconds at the South African Athletics Championships in Durban on Sunday.
She turned up the pace over the home straight to finish well ahead of South Africa’s Rorisang Ramonnye, who came second in 53,28.Earlier in the heats, Ramonnye beat Herunga into second place as they posted times of 53,59 and 53,74 seconds respectively.Herunga’s performance capped a great South African tour during which she also set a new Namibian 400m record of 52,32 in Germiston on March 26.Namibia’s Daniel Nghipandulwa came second in the men’s 800m final. Samson Ngoepe of South Africa won the gold medal in 1:45,69, while Nghipandulwa came second in a new personal best time of 1:46,62. It was more than a second faster than his previous best time of 1:47,95.In the 800m heats, Nghipandulwa came third in 1:48,23, while Petrus Lipula was eliminated after coming 10th in his heat in 1:58,49.Herunga and Nghipandulwa however were not awarded medals since they were competing as foreign guests at the South African National Championships.Several other Namibian athletes competed at the South African Championships, but they failed to make an impression.Globine Majova reached the women’s 200m final where she came sixth in 24,33 seconds. In the semifinals she came fourth in 24,67.In the women’s 100m, Majova came second in her first round heat in 12,14 but she was eliminated in the semifinals where she came seventh in 12,49.In the women’s 400m Silba Tjingaete came fifth in her first round heat in 57,19 seconds.In the men’s 100m, Hitjiverua Kaanjuka and Marvin Kamuingoma were both eliminated in the semifinals, with Kaanjuka coming sixth in his heat in 10,66 seconds and Kamuingoma third in his heat in 10,58 seconds.Kaanjuka and Kamuingoma were also both eliminated in the semifinals of the men’s 200m, with Kaanjuka finishing fourth in his heat in 21,28 seconds and Kamuingoma sixth in his heat in 21,93 seconds.In the men’s triple jump Roger Haitengi came fourth with a distance of 15,89m, which was well off his Namibian record of 16,74m that he set exactly a year ago in Windhoek. – namibiasport.com.na
