CASABLANCA – Namibia ended 16th overall out of 53 countries at the African Games (AG) which ended in Casablanca and Rabat, Morocco on Saturday.
Namibia won eight medals, of which two were gold, two silver and four bronze. The cycling team won six of the medals, including the two gold.
At the 2015 AG held in Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo, Namibia won 15 medals – five gold, four silver and six bronze to finish seventh in the standing.
Egypt emerged as the overall winners of the 2019 AG, with 273 medals of which 102 were gold, followed by Nigeria with 127 medals (46 gold).
South Africa were third place with 87 medals (36 gold); Algeria fourth with 125 medals (33 gold); Morocco fifth with 109 medals (31 gold) and Tunisia sixth with 97 medals (26 gold).
Kenya were seventh with 31 medals (11 gold), Mauritius eighth with 24 medals (six gold) Ethiopia ninth with 23 medals (six gold), while Madagascar occupied the 10th position with 12 medals (four gold).
A team of 60 Namibian athletes competed in 12 sports codes from 16 to 30 August 2019 at the African Games.
Cycling
The men’s team consisted of Tristan de Lange, Alex Miller, Xavier Papo, Drikus Coetzee, and Denzel de Koe.
De Lange, Miller and Papo competed in the mountain bike race and mountain bike marathon. De Lange won two gold medals in both events, while Miller won a silver in the mountain bike race and a bronze in the mountain bike marathon.
Vera Adrian was the only female representative and she won two bronze medals in the individual time trial and road race.
In the men’s road race, the Namibian team were in a sprint of 55 cyclists to the finish line out of the 102 riders who competed in the 160-kilometre route. Miller was in the top 20 after finishing 17th, while the others were out of the top 20 but finished with the whole peloton in a photo finish.
Archery
Namibian archers Quinn Reddig and Adriaan Grobler won a silver medal in the mixed team event.
In the individual events, Reddig was ranked number one after beating Reem Mansour of Egypt. Reddig shot her personal best of 629 points in the 70-metre distance.
Grobler finished ninth out of the 38 archers in the individual recurve.
Beach volleyball
The beach volleyball team of Kim Seebach and Kristin Schulz finished sixth at the championships. They were defeated in the quarter-final playoff by Mauritius after finishing as runners-up in their pool behind Morocco.
Track and field
Namibian sprinters competed in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 4x100m events and did not win any silverware.
Beatrice Masilingi managed to reach the final of the 400m event, but the young Namibian who made her debut at an international competition only managed to finish seventh.
The women’s 4x100m team of Masilingi, Tjipekapora Herunga, Jolene Jacobs and Globine Mayova missed out on a medal after they finished fourth in that event, which was won by Nigeria.
Swimming
Swimming had two representatives; Kiah Borg and Alexander Skinner.
The two athletes did not win any medals, but Skinner reached the final of his 100m freestyle event where he finished fifth.
Boxing
The rest of the team were defeated in the opening fights or after reaching the round of 16 through a bypass. They then got eliminated from the competition.
Tennis
Namibia’s tennis players were eliminated in the group stages of the singles events. Only Linique Theron managed to win a game, but could not progress to the next round of the competition.
