Three medals at Junior African Champs

RYAN Williams won two medals and Juan Smit one at the African Junior Athletics Championships which were recently held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Williams continued his great form of late when he won bronze in the men’s discus and shot-put events in the under 20 men’s category.

In the discus he finished third with a distance of 53,37 metres, while Chris van Niekerk of South Africa won gold in 56,49m and another South African, Francois Prinsloo silver in 55,79m.

In the shot put event he won the bronze medal with a distance of 16,02m, with Motaz Mohamed of Egypt winning gold in 19,21m and Chris van Niekerk of South Africa silver in 18,40.

Juan Smit won Namibia’s third bronze medal at the championships after coming third in the u20 men’s javelin with a distance of 62,79m.

A fourth Namibian who competed at the championships, Theron Human failed to reach the final of the 100m after coming fourth in his heat in a time of 11,34 seconds.

It was the first time in six years that Namibia had won medals at the Junior African Championships after Wilhelm Rademeyer won two bronze medals in discus and shot put in 2013.

The medal haul enabled Namibia to finish 15th overall on the medal standings.

Kenya finished first with a total of 28 medals and 13 gold, followed by South Africa (25 and nine gold) and Nigeria (16 and seven gold).

In the SADC region, besides South Africa, only Seychelles and Zambia with one silver medal each, finished higher than Namibia.

The Namibian men’s 4x400m relay team meanwhile set a new national record of three minutes 7,83 seconds (3:07,83) at the recent Gaberone Invitational Meet.

The Namibian team of Thasiso Auchumeb, Warren Goreseb, Ernst Narib and Mahmad Bock set a time of three minutes 7,83 seconds (3:07,83) which broke the former record of 3:11,53, which was set by Bock, Narib, Hardus Maritz and Even Tjiviju at the African Championships last year.

The Namibian team finished second to win the silver medal, behind the gold medallists Botswana who won in a time of 3:06,92.

At the same event, Bock finished third in the 400m B final in a time of 46,44 seconds, while Tjipekapora Herunga came third in the women’s 400m A final in a time of 53,55.

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