A niggling injury suffered in training has left ‘golden girl’ Johanna Benson fighting a race against time to be fit for next month’s International Paralympic World Championships in London.
This prestigious competition takes place from 14 to 23 July at the Olympic Stadium in the UK capital – the same venue which will host the IAAF World Athletics Championships from 4 to 13 August.
Benson is part of a talented Namibian squad which includes Rio Paralympic stars Johannes Nambala and Ananias Shikongo, and youngsters Lahja Ishitile and Eino Mushila.
“Apart from Johanna, everyone is in good shape and injury-free. She might not go. She’s struggling with an injury, and we don’t know if she will be able to recover in the short time left until we leave for London,” Namibia Paralympic Committee (NPC) secretary general Michael Hamukwaya told The Namibian Sport on Tuesday.
Benson has been relishing a return to the setting where her greatest career highlight was achieved during the 2012 Paralympic Games.
The 27-year-old shot to prominence after winning the women’s T37 200m gold and a bronze in the 100m, becoming the country’s athletics darling in the process.
While she remains the country’s top Paralympic female sprinter, it’s fair to say that Benson has not really gone on to set the world alight since that historic triumph.
In 2013, she won two bronze medals at the IPC World Championships in Lyon, France in the 100m and 200m, with the latter coming in a new African record time of 29,13 seconds.
In 2014, she won a bronze medal in the long jump at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, and in 2015, she won another bronze medal in the 200m at the IPC World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
That was followed by a below-par showing at the 2015 world championships, where she could only manage a bronze in the 200m.
Last year, she failed to make the podium at the Paralympic Games in Rio.
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