Samaria in silver win

NAMIBIA won its first medals at the All Africa Games on Thursday, with Agnes Samaria winning silver in the women’s 800m and Johannes ‘Baluka’ Simon bronze in the flyweight boxing category.

Samaria was leading for most of the race, but Mozambique’s Leonor Piuza passed her down the hom straight to win the gold medal in a relatively slow time of 2:02,27. Samaria came second in 2:03, 17, finishing fractionally ahead of Nahida Touhami of Algeria.Despite winning a medal, Samaria was bitterly disappointed by not winning the gold medal.”When I came into the home straight I was feeling fine and I could see the gold medal waiting there for me.I felt I was ready for anyone who wanted to challenge me, but then I moved a bit wide and this girl came through on my inside, and that should never have happened.I just feel very unlucky,” a disappointed Samaria said.* Rodger Haitengi came fifth in the men’s triple jump with a distance of 15,94 metres.Haitengi’s other jumps were 15,66m, 14,78m and 14,60m, while he stepped over the mark on two occasions.Haitengi was not too happy about his performance, calling it a ‘bad day at the office.’ His distance was also well short of his Namibian record of 16,36m.The triple jump was won by Ndiss Badji of Senegal with a distance of 16,80m, followed by Lucien Mamba Schlik of Cameroon (16,61m) and Andrew Oiusu of Ghana (16,32m).* Johannes Simon won a bronze medal after losing on a technical knockout in the second round against Algeria’s Mechnoui Abderahim in their flyweight semifinal bout.Simon was up against it from the start as the Algerian had huge support from the local fans, who were drumming and singing away.Once again the judging seemed to be biased as Simon connected with some solid punches in the first round, which however did not count.On the other hand, Abderahim’s points skyrocketed from the start and after 30 seconds he was already leading 10-1.At the end of the first round he was leading 16-2 and shot up to an 18-3 lead within 15 seconds of the second round.Midway through the second half the Algerian took a 20-point lead at 24-4 and the referee stopped the bout, awarding the fight to the Algerian on a technical knockout.As a losing semifinalist, Simon won a bronze medal, to secure Namibia’s second medal at the Games.* Namibia’s women’s gymnastics team came fourth in the team competition on Thursday.The Namibian team, consisting of Chloe Hansen, Lynique Louw, Ramona Beukes, Kimberly Ann van Zyl and Angelique de Klerk finished with an overall score of 132,95 points.South Africa won the team competition with a score of 156,30, followed by Egypt on 152,15 and Algeria on 143,15.It was a brave display by a young Namibian team, but their medal hopes suffered a blow on the final apparatus, when all Namibia’s gymnasts lost points for falling off the beam.Beukes and Van Zyl however managed to qualify for the individual category finals which take place on Saturday and Sunday.* Meanwhile, Namibian wrestler Johannes Homateni lost his first round bout in the freestyle category against an opponent from Madagascar, also on Thursday.Homateni earlier also lost his first round bout in the Greco Roman category against and opponent from the Congo.Samaria came second in 2:03, 17, finishing fractionally ahead of Nahida Touhami of Algeria.Despite winning a medal, Samaria was bitterly disappointed by not winning the gold medal.”When I came into the home straight I was feeling fine and I could see the gold medal waiting there for me.I felt I was ready for anyone who wanted to challenge me, but then I moved a bit wide and this girl came through on my inside, and that should never have happened.I just feel very unlucky,” a disappointed Samaria said.* Rodger Haitengi came fifth in the men’s triple jump with a distance of 15,94 metres.Haitengi’s other jumps were 15,66m, 14,78m and 14,60m, while he stepped over the mark on two occasions.Haitengi was not too happy about his performance, calling it a ‘bad day at the office.’ His distance was also well short of his Namibian record of 16,36m.The triple jump was won by Ndiss Badji of Senegal with a distance of 16,80m, followed by Lucien Mamba Schlik of Cameroon (16,61m) and Andrew Oiusu of Ghana (16,32m).* Johannes Simon won a bronze medal after losing on a technical knockout in the second round against Algeria’s Mechnoui Abderahim in their flyweight semifinal bout.Simon was up against it from the start as the Algerian had huge support from the local fans, who were drumming and singing away.Once again the judging seemed to be biased as Simon connected with some solid punches in the first round, which however did not count.On the other hand, Abderahim’s points skyrocketed from the start and after 30 seconds he was already leading 10-1.At the end of the first round he was leading 16-2 and shot up to an 18-3 lead within 15 seconds of the second round.Midway through the second half the Algerian took a 20-point lead at 24-4 and the referee stopped the bout, awarding the fight to the Algerian on a technical knockout.As a losing semifinalist, Simon won a bronze medal, to secure Namibia’s second medal at the Games.* Namibia’s women’s gymnastics team came fourth in the team competition on Thursday.The Namibian team, consisting of Chloe Hansen, Lynique Louw, Ramona Beukes, Kimberly Ann van Zyl and Angelique de Klerk finished with an overall score of 132,95 points.South Africa won the team competition with a score of 156,30, followed by Egypt on 152,15 and Algeria on 143,15.It was a brave display by a young Namibian team, but their medal hopes suffered a blow on the final apparatus, when all Namibia’s gymnasts lost points for falling off the beam.Beukes and Van Zyl however managed to qualify for the individual category finals which take place on Saturday and Sunday.* Meanwhile, Namibian wrestler Johannes Homateni lost his first round bout in the freestyle category against an opponent from Madagascar, also on Thursday.Homateni earlier also lost his first round bout in the Greco Roman category against and opponent from the Congo.