Tough qualifying standards for Commonwealth Games 

The Namibia National Olympic Committee (NNOC) hopes to send a team of about 20 athletes to this year’s Commonwealth Games, but the qualifying standards are extremely tough. 

Besides that, this year’s games will be a scaled-down event, missing several sport codes that appeared previously, which has also dealt a blow to Namibia.  

Namibia will only be competing in five sporting codes, while one of Namibia’s most successful codes on the international stage, cycling, will not be there. 

At the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Alex Miller won a bronze medal in the MTB race, while Vera Looser just missed out on another bronze when she came fourth in the women’s road race. Last year, Roger Suren continued Namibian cycling’s international success when he won a silver medal at the UCI Junior MTB World Championships. 

NNOC CEO Anri Parker on Tuesday confirmed that Namibia will only select athletes to compete in five codes – athletics, swimming, boxing, gymnastics and bowls, adding that cycling’s absence was a big setback.

“That’s a huge blow – Alex and Roger would have done exceptionally well, while our ladies field is also particularly strong this year. The only cycling they will have is indoor track cycling on a velodrome, but unfortunately we dont have a velodrome,” she said. 

Parker said the qualifying times are extremely tough and that they will consider using other criteria to enlarge the team. 

“If you look at the qualifying criteria you will see that our athletes will have to set times of a semifinal athlete at the previous Commonwealth Games, so if you use that criteria, then we may only have one or two athletes that will qualify. So, what we are saying is perhaps we should look at another option and expand that to say maybe if your times are in the top 32, we would also consider making you part of the team to get athletes the exposure they need for the road to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics,” she said. 

Parker added that according to Commonwealth Games regulations, qualifying times are not set in stone and national olympic committees have discretion in their team selection. 

“If you go read the Commonwealth rules, they are very specific in that a country can send athletes that they feel can qualify. It’s not like the Olympics where they use set minimum entry standards, with the Olympics you cannot send an athlete that didn’t qualify, but with the Commonwealth Games it’s different. If you feel there is an athlete that is very close to the qualifying time, but they just had a bad season or they had an injury or something like that, and you believe that they can actually run that time, then the discretion is up to the country to say we are going to give that athlete a chance, unlike at the Olympics, where you wouldn’t even be able to get on the plane,” she said. 

Medal hopefuls 

Despite the tough standards, Parker said they are hopeful of winning some medals. 

“Both our men and women’s bowls teams came second in Africa last year, while Diana Viljoen beat the world’s top ranked player from Australia, so we are hoping for a good showing from bowls. And in boxing, we are extremely hopeful to send a big team because men and women will be competing and there are 12 different weight categories so we will have a much bigger opportunity to medal there,” she said. 

Parker said they hope to send a team of about 20 athletes to the Commonwealth Games. 

“The Commonwealth Games have a team calculator and they will prescribe to you how many athletes you are allowed to take based on your historical participation, based on the events that they’ve got available, or based on the size of the sport in competing countries. According to our team calculator and quota, we are allowed to take 20 athletes, able-bodied and Para, and we are very confident that we will have world-class athletes to put in that team and take with.” 

Meanwhile, the qualifying standards for the Youth Olympic Games, which take place in Africa for the first time, in Dakar from 31 October to 13 November, must still be determined, but here Namibia has suffered another blow as top medal contenders, cyclists Suren and Delsia Janse van Vuuren will just miss the age cut. 

“Athletes need to be 18 and under for the Olympic Youth Games and sadly Roger and Delsia will both be just a couple of months too old,” Parker said. 

“But the youngsters that competed at the Africa Youth Games in Angola did an exceptional job and we are very excited with the team that was present there. I think there might also be a swimmer that will be over 18 by the time the games arrive, but luckily there’s a lot of depth in cycling and swimming,” she added. 

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