Judo athletes collect medals

NAMIBIA’s judokas returned with six medals from the recent African Kurash Championships held in Mozambique and the Zone 6 Judo Championships in South Africa.

Of the six athletes that the Namibian Judo Federation (NJF) sent to Maputo on September 18, three collected individual medals, with the entire team scoring the fourth. Ian Esau got silver after a second-placed finish in his category, while Esperanca Tjiwemu and Owen Olivier both collected bronze in their events. Namibia also posted a third place finish in the team event for which it received another bronze medal.
Given Namibia’s small delegation they teamed up with Mauritius and another country to earn the medal, said NJF president Roman Böck. ‘Natangwe Josaphat Shigwedha did particularly good in the team event,’ said Böck, who added that the sport code is improving on the international stage.
The team also picked up a bronze medal in the junior male category and a silver medal in the senior female category at the Zone 6 Judo Championships in South Africa towards the end of last month. According to Bock the competition – like in Maputo – was ‘very tough in South Africa’ however the Namibian team competed bravely.
‘This was the first time that we sent women to the competition and Esperanca Tjiwemu did us quite proud to win a silver medal,’ said Bock.
Esau got the bronze medal in the junior male category.
‘This boy is a bundle of talent and can even achieve better in future. This is also his first appearance on the international scene.
‘I personally think that the entire team did well, especially if we have to take into consideration that our players train on an amateur level.’
Bock said that the team had done the country proud and can do much better in future.
‘It seems that Namibian Judo grew from strength to strength over the last years,’ he said.
He added that the teams achievements ‘would not have been possible without the support of our sponsors ‘. Apart from funding from the International Judo Federation (IJF) and African Kurash Federation (AKF), the team received a helping hand from the parents of the athletes and Bank Windhoek.