RYAN Williams capped a great season when he smashed the Namibian discus record by more than 2,5 metres at an athletics event in Germany over the weekend.
Competing at an international event in Wedel, Germany on Saturday, Williams smashed his own Namibian record of 45,95m with a new mark of 48,54m.
Williams’ who is still only 19 years old set the previous record of 45,95m in Zimbabwe two years ago, and came close to breaking that mark at the National Championships in April, with a throw of 45,51 metres.
His new record, however, is still more than 4m off the qualifying mark of 53,00m for the All Africa Games in Morocco in August, but Leonie van Rensburg of Athletics Namibia said she believed he could achieve that.
“That was a great performance by Ryan and we are hoping that he will still qualify for the All Africa Games in August. He will still compete at a few events in Europe, so with the stronger competition he might be able to reach the mark,” she said.
Van Rensburg added that some other top Namibian athletes, namely Jolene Jacobs (100m), Tjipe Herunga (200m and 400m) and Ernst Narib (200m and 400m) are currently also competing in Europe with the aim of qualifying for the All Africa Games.
Four young Namibian athletes, meanwhile, left for Mauritius on Wednesday to compete in the African Junior Championships over the weekend.
They are javelin thrower Ludwig Huber, Karlien Botha (shot put and discus), Christine Mboma (800m) and Beatrice Masilingi (200m and 400m).
All four athletes have excelled at national and regional events this year.
They all won gold medals at the Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa Championships (Cossasa) last month, while Botha won gold in shot put and silver in discus at the senior national championships; and Huber silver in javelin at the senior national championships.
