SOUTH Africa’s junior high jump world champion Breyton Poole will be the main attraction at the Erongo Regional Open Athletics Championship which will be held in Swakopmund on Saturday.
Poole stunned the athletics world when he won the gold medal at the World Junior Championships in Nairobi, Kenya last month with an incredible leap of 2,24m, despite only being 1,72m tall himself.
With that jump he defied the odds and showed that a combination of speed, technique and power was more important than height. He was in a class of his own as he dominated the final, to finish 10cm ahead of second-placed Chima Ihenetu of Germany, while Vladyslav Lavskyy of Ukraine came third with a height of 2,11m.
According to the organiser of the championship, Hennie Horn of Swakop Striders, Poole was keen to come and perform in Namibia.
“We have a close relationship with athletes and coaches in South Africa, including the new u18 world champion Breyton Poole, who wants to come to Namibia to take part in our event. We therefore decided to put everything into it and make it a one of a kind event,” he said.
Saturday’s championship will be an event with a difference and will consist of two legs – the athletics championship at the Swakopmund Athletics Stadium in Vineta, which starts at 08h00 and will be presented by Swakop Striders, to be followed by a high jump event which will start at 19h00 at the Dome Indoor Sport Centre.
During the high jump event, Poole and several other athletes will be in action, where they will attempt to break the men and women’s Namibian indoor records.
Besides Poole, some of Namibia’s up and coming high jumpers who will be in action include Conrad Blauw who has a personal best (PB) height of 2,05m and Vizamuje Ujahaa who has a PB of 2,07m. The chances are very good that they could break the Namibian indoor record of 1,96m which was established by Hans von Lieres two years ago.
The Namibian women’s indoor record of 1,55m, which was set by Leonie van Rensburg in 1990, will also be under threat from some of Namibia’s top up and coming juniors. They include Minette Turner, Megan le Roux and Namibia’s u15 Cossasa champion, Chrislene Klein Nienaber who was the best u15 high jumper in Africa this year with a height of 1,68m.
According to Horn, about 300 athletes will participate at the athletics event at the Swakopmund Stadium.
“The cream of athletes from Namibia and also some from South Africa will take part, while we also have some para-athletes who will compete,” he said.
“We will limit the entries to the best 300 athletes, while we hope to attract about 1 000 to 1 500 spectators,” he added.
The entrance fee is N$10 for adults, N$5 for children and N$20 for vehicles at the Swakopmund Stadium, and N$20 at the Dome.
More information can be obtained from Horn at 0812939987.
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