FEMALE sprinting ace Globine Mayova to broke the national 100m record for the second time in a week with a blistering 11,66 seconds run at a Yellow Pages Series meeting in Pretoria on Friday.
Despite a slow start, Mayova accelerated to outstrip South African pair Cherese Jones (11,79) and Carina Horn (11,89) into second and third respectively as she impressively lowered the 11,76 she set in Mauritius last week.With African sprinting legends Frankie Fredericks and Mary Onyali looking on, Mayova also upstaged newly crowned South African champion Sonja van der Merwe to win the 200m with a personal best time of 23,56 which is just outside the Namibian record of 23,50 set by her training partner Tjipekapora Herunga in Maputo last year. Mayova reiterated her desire to qualify for the Olympic Games for both events by improving her times.’It’s really nice running here in South Africa and I am really improving racing against these girls week in and week out and to win the double is really special,’ said MayovaShe was not the only Namibian turning on the style during the sensational third Yellow Pages meeting in the City of Tswane. Herunga made it a triple victory for the Namibian girls by winning the 400m race in a time of 51,90 – a time which matched the Olympic qualifying standard. Herunga ran confidently in lane 5, controlling the race from the beginning and did not allow any of her rivals to catch up with her. ‘We trained very hard for the past two weeks as we saw my competitors running really well, I know this year I am in better shape and can definitely go much faster. It is evident in my training. I want to be in top shape for Europe, African Champs and my first Olympic Games. I am also very glad that I have Globine to train with as we help each other very much and hopefully I can improve my 200m record so she doesn’t take it away from me but if she does I will be happy for her and work harder to get it back.’Namibian double sprinting champ Hitjivirure Kaanjuka gave a good account of himself by ending third in the 100m in 10,52 and the 200m in 20,95. Both races were won by Roscoe Engel in 10,30 and 20,79. ‘I feel great I have had up and downs but I feel it’s all coming together and I can only go forward from here. I am really happy with my races as I just went in and enjoyed myself,’ Kanjuuka said afterwards.With the latest performances, Mayova, Herunga and Kaanjuka all met the qualifying standard for the African Senior Championships in Benin later this year.In total 13 Namibians participated in the meeting, triple jumper Roger Haitenge is slowly creeping closer to qualifying for the Benin games, ending third in 15,93 meters just short of the required 16,00m mark. Daniel Nghipandulwa ran bravely to end third in the 800m in one minute and 48,15 seconds. Former world champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi won the race in 1:46,12. In the men’s 400m, Karupu Basilus placed sixth (47,91 seconds) with Frank Puriza in eighth (48,98). Johannes Skrywer ended the 1500m in a disappointing eighth position in 3:53,59 after leading most of the race. Lavinia Haitope ended fourth (4:32,88) with compatriot Ndeshimona Ekandjo (4:56,86) among the chasing pack in the women’s race over the same distance. Hurdler Steffi Van Wyk was a respectable fifth posting 14,77 as Charlene Engelbrecht ended fourth in the shotput with a distance of 13,80m and seventh in the discus with 42,64m.In the females’ 800m Herunga helped her friend Caster Semenya qualify for the Olympics as she set pace for her over 600m after Caster struggled to qualify for the Olympics all season long. ‘It’s a huge relief to attain the London Olympic A qualifying standard early in the year, I owe a debt of gratitude to our pacesetter (Tjipe) who worked according to how we planned the race, it will be great to make it to the podium and even win a gold medal at the Olympic Games,’ Semenya said after the race.Team manager Agnes Samaria said: ‘I am happy with the results and it shows hard work pays once again the already qualified athletes have shown their class, but we have to remember and take note that they all started from somewhere and now the results speaks for themselves and that this should serve as a motivation and inspiration to all the other athletes.
