Moses, Van Staden win top sport awards

BOXER Paulus Moses and mountain bike rider Heletje van Staden won the Namibia Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year awards at the MTC NSC Sport Award Function on Friday evening.

Moses became the WBA lightweight champion of the world when he beat Japan’s Yusuke Kobori in Yokahama in January 2009, while he successfully defended his title against Japan’s Takehiro Shimada in Windhoek in July. In his acceptance speech a beaming Moses said he would give his award to former president Sam Nujoma.’I am very happy to win this award but it’s not for me, it’s for the whole of Namibia. This is the third time that I have won this trophy and I will give it to the founding father of the nation,’ he said.Van Staden became the African Under-23 champion at the African Mountain Bike Championships in July, while she came 28th in the U/23 category at the World Championships in Australia in September. She thanked her parents for their support and everyone who had believed in her and supported her.Wrestler Sem Shilimela won the Junior Sportsman of the Year award after winning a silver medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games, while swimmer Daniela Lindemeier won the Junior Sportswoman of the Year award after reaching two finals at the Commonwealth Youth Games. Endurance rider Bredell Wessels won the Most Improved Sportsperson of the Year award after winning the senior category at the African Endurance Riding Championships, while another member of Endurance Riding, Izolde von Schauroth won the Referee/Umpire of the Year award.Boxing trainer and promoter Nestor Tobias won the Trainer of the Year award, while the Namibian Carp Angling team won the Team of the Year award after coming third at the World Championships. The president of Carp Angling in Namibia Anton Seabrooke won the Administrator of the Year award, while Special Olympics Namibia won the Best Development Programme of the Year award. Reginald Benade won the Disabled Sportsman of the Year award, after being ranked second in the world in discus and fourth in shotput, while Rosemary Tseitseimou won the Disabled Sportswoman of the Year award. The guest speaker at the function, former Bafana Bafana legend Doctor Khumalo received a standing ovation with an inspiring speech in which he described how he overcame his setbacks and challenges, while inspiring Namibia’s sportsmen and women to set high goals for themselves. ‘You have been given opportunities by God Almighty to excel in sport, but you as individuals must make sure that you don’t wait for others to encourage you. All the hard work lies with you and you will be all by yourself when it comes to performance. A coach can help you with tactical advice but if you really want to excel you must make it happen for yourself,’ he said. Khumalo called on Africa’s sport administrators to be united and put sport first and not to work for self-enrichment.’How can our sportsmen and women make it happen when if our administrators are not united and if they are depriving our athletes of opportunities to excel? Is it all about the money and power and positions? Please think twice, we in Africa really need you,’ he said. NATIONAL SPORT LOTTERY MTC’s general manager of corporate affairs Albertus Aochamub said a concerted effort needed to be made to improve Namibia’s sporting achievements on the international stage.He said the main problems hampering sporting success were a lack of an assured vision and the absence of a carefully crafter funding formula for sport. ‘I’ve seen many documents, but are they just gathering dust? I have read Vision 2030, but I have not seen anything in it about developing sport. Somewhere we have missed the boat. If our national roadmap misses that, how can we start to plan for funding of sport? We can’t, because we missed the boat from the get go,’ he said. ‘We are in charge of Namibia now and we cannot blame the Boers anymore. The time is now to transform our hopes and dreams into a tangible vision,’ he said. Regarding funding, Aochamub said that a national sport lottery should be created to raise funds for Namibia’s sportsmen and women. ‘It’s an idea whose time has come. I hope the Namibia Sport Commission will take this up so that we can stop complaining that there are no funds,’ he said. namibiasport.com.na