Namibia suffers huge blow at Olympics

NAMIBIA’S three main medal hopefuls failed to make it to the finals in their respective disciplines at the Olympic Games over the weekend.

The most disappointing performance came from Christie van Wyk, who was bundled out in the first round of the 100 metres heats. Van Wyk’s, whose participation at the Games was clouded in controversy as he was not selected in the initial Olympic team, ended his campaign in a disappointing fifth spot, clocking 10,49 seconds.The athlete was initially excluded from the Namibian Olympic team as he had failed to take part in several races held in Africa.Namibia’s sprint master, Frank Fredericks, bade farewell to the 100m event at the Olympics, as he was beaten to fourth place in the second round.Fredericks won the first heat in 10,12 seconds, but could not make it further in that event, clocking 10,17 the second time around.Fredericks decided at last minute to take part in the 100m.He still has a chance for a medal in the 200m race which scheduled for tomorrow.Agnes Samaria was also dumped from the 800m race on Friday, coming in a disappointing fifth place, clocking 1 minute 59.37 seconds, a time which also served as her personal best.Starting on a good note however, were Namibian boxers, Joseph Hilongwa and Paulus Ambunda.Hilongwa, a light flyweight (48 kilograms), dismissed Australia’s Peter Wakefield on points to advance to the next round, which is on tomorrow against Sergey Kazakov from Russia.Ambunda, a 51 kilogram flyweight competitor, was in uncompromising form as he got rid of Venezuela’s Mendoza Alvarado on points.Ambunda scored 39-19 and is expected to trade blows with Germany’s Rustamhodza Rahimov on Wednesday.Athletics Namibia president Alpha Kangueehi yesterday told The Namibian Sport that he was not surprised by the poor performance of the Namibian athletes.”Agnes has been suffering from a hamstring injury and is not in top shape and this led to her downfall, while Fredericks was nowhere at beating the youngsters in the 100m.Fredericks specialises in the 200m and we hope that he will do better there, ” he said.On Van Wyk, Kangueehi said he did not expect much from him, but he reckons that he ran a good time.Athletics official, Charles Godon, said the athletes generally recoded good times, but Namibia now needs to concentrate at producing young athletes for the next Olympic Games.”Frank’s time is up, he gave a good account of himself, Agnes tried her best, but van Wyk did not look as sharp as we expected, ” he said.Namibia’s young and upcoming 100 and 200m sprinter, Chriswell de Wee thinks that Fredericks did well despite the loss.”Considering that he was the oldest man on the track, he did well and the time is not that bad.I know it is disappointing for him, but I feel proud of him as he tried his best,” he said.Samaria was quoted as saying, after her race, that: “I was aiming to break the national (Namibian) record of 1:59.15 seconds but that was very elusive”.Samaria said her group was the fastest and she could not match the pace, adding that she took a gamble.She said her training ahead of the event was good but luck was not on her side.Asked what was next for her, she said she would run a couple of races in Europe before returning back home at the beginning of October.Van Wyk’s, whose participation at the Games was clouded in controversy as he was not selected in the initial Olympic team, ended his campaign in a disappointing fifth spot, clocking 10,49 seconds.The athlete was initially excluded from the Namibian Olympic team as he had failed to take part in several races held in Africa.Namibia’s sprint master, Frank Fredericks, bade farewell to the 100m event at the Olympics, as he was beaten to fourth place in the second round.Fredericks won the first heat in 10,12 seconds, but could not make it further in that event, clocking 10,17 the second time around.Fredericks decided at last minute to take part in the 100m.He still has a chance for a medal in the 200m race which scheduled for tomorrow.Agnes Samaria was also dumped from the 800m race on Friday, coming in a disappointing fifth place, clocking 1 minute 59.37 seconds, a time which also served as her personal best.Starting on a good note however, were Namibian boxers, Joseph Hilongwa and Paulus Ambunda.Hilongwa, a light flyweight (48 kilograms), dismissed Australia’s Peter Wakefield on points to advance to the next round, which is on tomorrow against Sergey Kazakov from Russia.Ambunda, a 51 kilogram flyweight competitor, was in uncompromising form as he got rid of Venezuela’s Mendoza Alvarado on points.Ambunda scored 39-19 and is expected to trade blows with Germany’s Rustamhodza Rahimov on Wednesday.Athletics Namibia president Alpha Kangueehi yesterday told The Namibian Sport that he was not surprised by the poor performance of the Namibian athletes.”Agnes has been suffering from a hamstring injury and is not in top shape and this led to her downfall, while Fredericks was nowhere at beating the youngsters in the 100m.Fredericks specialises in the 200m and we hope that he will do better there, ” he said.On Van Wyk, Kangueehi said he did not expect much from him, but he reckons that he ran a good time.Athletics official, Charles Godon, said the athletes generally recoded good times, but Namibia now needs to concentrate at producing young athletes for the next Olympic Games.”Frank’s time is up, he gave a good account of himself, Agnes tried her best, but van Wyk did not look as sharp as we expected, ” he said.Namibia’s young and upcoming 100 and 200m sprinter, Chriswell de Wee thinks that Fredericks did well despite the loss.”Considering that he was the oldest man on the track, he did well and the time is not that bad.I know it is disappointing for him, but I feel proud of him as he tried his best,” he said.Samaria was quoted as saying, after her race, that: “I was aiming to break the national (Namibian) record of 1:59.15 seconds but that was very elusive”.Samaria said her group was the fastest and she could not match the pace, adding that she took a gamble.She said her training ahead of the event was good but luck was not on her side.Asked what was next for her, she said she would run a couple of races in Europe before returning back home at the beginning of October.