Navachab boosts road running 

The 2024 winners of the Navachab Gold Mine Half Marathon, Daniel Paulus and Lavinia Haitope, will take on some of Southern Africa’s top road athletes when they compete in the Nelson Mandela Bay Half Marathon in Gqeberha on Saturday. 

At a press conference in Windhoek yesterday, McLyn Kasale of Navachab Gold Mine announced a sponsorship for the two athletes, as well as for last year’s two social category winners, Lazarus Shangadi and Victoria Shinime, who will compete in the social category in Gqeberha.

Kasale added that he and the organizer of the Navachab Half Marathon, Bethold Karumendu, will also accompany the athletes to learn more about staging top-class events, with the aim of raising the profile of the Navachab Half Marathon.

“We are excited to be part of this journey. It has been a long one, but we want it to be much longer and we want this race to be recognized at a regional and an international level, so that’s why we are strategically building it up until we reach that stage,” he said.

“Our target is to register for the bronze status on the World Athletics radar, but we realize that we won’t achieve that if we don’t get exposure to races that have gone through the same journey, and that’s why we are targeting Gqeberha because they now have silver status on the World Athletics radar. So we are going to learn a lot from them, their standards and technical exposure, and the shared values of what it is that we need to offer to Namibian athletes,” he said.

“We have involved Lazarus and Victoria because they are also serving on the local organizing committee of the Navachab Half Marathon, so whatever they learn there, they will implement back home so that the Navachab Half Marathon becomes better and better each year,” he added.

Kasale said they are also targeting the youth with the aim of tracking Namibia’s top young talents.

“We are also targeting the youth segment of our population, the schools, because our view is that there should be tracking of athletes from a young age so that as they improve, they can participate in any marathon in the world. Not just participate, but to make us proud like netball did just a few days ago. We want to celebrate these athletes coming back with a trophy; that’s what we want, and that’s Navachab’s viewpoint, to say we will contribute this as our social corporate responsibility, and this is what we are able to bring to the table,” he said.

Karumendu thanked Navachab for their support: “They have been supporting this race for more than ten years and now they have a vision for the race to become bigger and better, by sending our winners to the Nelson Mandela Bay Half Marathon. This race has been accredited by World Athletics and they will have top athletes from countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho, as well as the local elite athletes from South Africa.

Karumendu said the standard of road races in Namibia was poor and needed to be uplifted.

“We want to upgrade the level of road running in Namibia and the level of our athletes in order to get to the level of the rest of Africa and the rest of the world. The standard of our road races in Namibia is very low and we need to uplift it, in terms of prize money, to be able to have quality athletes coming to compete in Namibia.

“At that moment, when athletes are asking you what you are paying for first place at the Navachab Half Marathon, then I say N$20 000. Some of them, from countries like Zimbabwe and Zambia might come, but the top elite athletes will not come,” he said.

“But the moment you get a better race that’s accredited by World Athletics, the athletes will come. When the athletes are coming to Namibia, we may have quality races, which can even serve as a qualifying event for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics,” he added.

Karumendu said the road to Los Angeles had already started and called on corporates to get involved in sport sponsorship.

“If you don’t invest in our athletes now, you may only get one or two athletes who will qualify for the 2028 Olympics, and then if you ask why do we have so few athletes, then you will realize it’s because we did not invest in them,” he said.

“We came back from the Paris Olympics last year, but is there any program to help elite athletes prepare for international games coming up over the next four years? No, there is none,” he added.

The director of sport, Jo-Ann Manuel, thanked Navachab for their investment and called on other corporates to do the same.

“If you look at the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, goal 17 talks about smart partnerships to reach our goals. And what are our goals? If you look at one of the goals, it says healthy living and well-being, so those goals are talking to sport and these are the partnerships that we have to create. We don’t need to stage big events, but we need to create opportunities for our athletes,” she said.

“So Navachab Mine, don’t look at the monetary terms, look at the opportunities that you have created. We are grateful and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for what you have done,” she said.

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