SWAKOPMUND – Namibian under 13 athlete Chrislene Klein Nienaber became the first athlete to break a record at the Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa (Cossasa) Athletics Championships which started in Swakopmund on Thursday.
Klein Nienaber set a new Girls u13 high jump record of 1,57m, to break the previous record of 1.50m set by Namibia’s Jewel Engelbrecht in Botswana in 2012.
Klein Nienaber, who also won a gold medal for her effort said she was happy her hard work was paying off.
“I feel really happy to have broken the high jump record at the Cossasa Champs. I will now work very hard and aim to jump 1.60m by the end of the year. I train five times a week and it is finally paying off.
“I have so far won two gold medals for my country and I hope to add more medals as the competition continues, ” she told Nampa.
Klein Nienaber also won gold in the long jump, where she cleared a distance of 4.68m.
Her coach Hennie Horn said he was proud of her achievement and all credit should be given to her hard work on and off the field.
“She is still u13 and broke that record by 7cm which is a really good jump for her age. I am hopeful by the end of this year we can jump over 1.60m, which is an u15 record, and we still have a lot of years to participate in this youth competition I know she will still break more records, ” he said.
More than 450 athletes are competing in the championships with under 13 to under 17 athletes from Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe competing.
The track events include sprints, middle and long distance running, as well as hurdles, while field disciplines include javelin, shot put, high jump and long jump.
Namibia School Sport Union (NSSU) National Coordinator Solly Duiker told Nampa on Thursday the championships started off well.
“In the past we had issues with the late arrival of teams, which usually delayed the start of the competition.
“The only problem we faced [this time around] was accommodation, because some of the teams arrived with more delegation members than the numbers that were communicated to us, but we managed to sort that out and we are happy everything is running smoothly now, ” he said.
So far Botswana and Zimbabwe are dominating the track events, but Namibia is doing well in the field events.
“We have a lot of under 15 athletes in our team (Namibia), whom we are grooming for the next two tournaments, ” said Duiker.
Namibia won the championships in 2013 and 2014, but Zimbabwe is the defending champion after winning the competition in Lesotho last year. Nampa
