JOHANNES Nambala made history in 2013 when he became the first Namibian athlete to win a gold medal at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France.
With a superb performance he won the Men’s 400m T13 in a new championship record time of 49,07 seconds to win the gold medal.
Nambala also won a silver medal in the 200m, but it was the 400m gold that still stands out.
‘That was an amazing feeling. Back then I was still a new guy in the Namibian Paralympics team so it was a wonderful feeling. When they played the national anthem I couldn’t help but cry,’ he said.
Then, still only 22 years old, Nambala had burst onto the Namibian Paralympic scene after making rapid progress over the previous years.
He was born in Uukwaludhi in northern Namibia, and grew up with his grandmother in Iikokala village.
Johnny was born with only partial sight, something which ran in the family.
‘I was born blind like this. It’s something that also affected my father I inherited it from him, and some of my sisters also have the same problem. We call it partial sighted because I cannot see more than 60 percent,’ he said.
Nambala attended Eluwa Special School in Ongwediva and from a young age made his mark in athletics.
‘I did very well and those small boys who were my age, they knew me well because I was very fast. I used to win many competitions at school then, I used to run against able bodied athletes and gave them a tough time,’ he said.
‘I used to do a lot of sports and the teachers always said, Johnny, you don’t know how talented you are. I used to be in the school choir and in the school dance, while I also did athletics and soccer. At a stage I had to choose so I decided on athletics, because its something that I could go far with,’ he added.
By 2010, when he was in Grade 9, Nambala made the national athletics team that competed in the Zone 6 Games in Swaziland and soon came to the attention of the Namibian Paralympics team, who registered him as a para athlete.
In 2012 he went to his first SA Nedbank National Championships for Physically Disabled but unfortunately was not classified and could not compete.
‘The doctor said I can see and I’m not qualified to run in the Nedbank Championships. I was very disillusioned I wanted to give up athletics because I knew I cannot see and that I had qualified to run in this group,’ he said.
Nambala’s coaches Mike Hamukwaya and Barbara Fernandez however continued to support and motivate him and the next year he was finally classified as a T13 athlete at the Nedbank Championships in Pretoria. From then on, he took the world by storm.
In Pretoria he won three gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m and then four months later the world took notice when he won a gold and a silver medal at the IPC World Championships.
‘I felt so proud because it was the first time for Namibia to win a gold medal and for our anthem to be played at these championships.
‘I was still new in the team, but my team mates were happy for me because we work as a team and they were not jealous, because my achievements were for the team and the country,’ he said.
At the end of that year he won the Disabled Sportsman of the Year award at the NSC Sport Awards and in 2014 he also won the Windhoek Lager Sport Ambassador of the Year award.
Nambala in the mean time had moved to Windhoek to be closer to the Paralympic team and to complete his schooling at HTS where he passed Grade 12 last year.
Nambala has dominated his category at the SA Nedbank National Championships over the past three years, winning three gold medals from 2014 to 2016, and in the process qualified for the 2015 IPC World Championships and the 2016 Paralympic Games.
At the IPC World Championships in Doha, Qatar last year he once again excelled, winning the gold medal in the 200m in a new African record time of 21,75 seconds and bronze in the 400m in a personal best time of 48,68 seconds.
In the same race, Mohamed Amguoun of Morocco won the gold medal in a new world record time of 47,83 seconds, and Nambala now feels he has a score to settle.
‘I’m a bit angry because that Moroccan guy left me and broke the African and world record in Qatar, so I’m going to Rio to get my revenge, because I’m the 400m champion,’ he said.
‘I don’t want to promise that I’ll win a gold medal, but I just want to tell the nation they must expect good things from our side,’ he added.
One on One with Johannes Nambala
Uukwaludhi in the Omusati region on 15 February 1991.
Where did you go to school?
Eluwa Special School from Grade 1 to 10 and HTS in Grade 11 and 12.
