South Africa won the Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa (COSSASA) Athletics Championships in Windhoek on May 7 for the sixth year in a row.
South Africa won the competition with a total of 382 points, followed by Botswana on 346 and the hosts, Namibia, on 307. Zambia came fourth on 63, Lesotho fifth on 56 and Swaziland sixth on 13.
South Africa won the male team competition with 200 points, followed by Namibia on 180 and Botswana on 141, while Botswana won the female competition with 205 points, followed by South Africa on 182 and Namibia on 127.
South Africa won a total of 40 medals (16 gold, 15 silver and 9 bronze), Botswana won 27 medals (7 gold, 8 silver and 12 bronze) and Namibia won 24 medals (7 gold, 8 silver and 9 bronze).
Six new COSSASA records
Six new COSSASA records were established at the meeting. Thandi Mngwevu of South Africa set a new women?s Under-20 100m record of 11,97 seconds, beating the old mark of 12,11.
Rachel Nachula of Zambia set a new 400m record for women with a time of 54,56 seconds, beating the old mark of 55,44. Leandie Maritz of South Africa won the women?s long jump with a new record of 5,98m, beating the old mark of 5,79m.
Keenan Watson of South Africa won the men?s long jump with a record distance of 7,63m. Johan Laubscher of South Africa, who came second with 7,20m, also beat the previous record of 7,17m.
The Namibian men?s 4x100m relay team, consisting of Frank Puriza, Hitjivirue Kaanjuka, Richard Wolman and Chriswell de Wee set a new record of 40,87 seconds, to beat the old mark of 41,52.
Namibia?s men, in fact, dominated the sprint events.
Hitjivirue Kaanjuka won the 100m in 10,66, followed by Brendan Clement of South Africa (10,78) and Richard Wolman of Namibia (10,86).
Kaanjuka also won the 200m in 21,29, followed by compatriot Frank Puriza (21,47) and Clement (21,73).
Puriza won the men?s 400m in 47,37, followed by South Africa?s Pieter Smith (47,99) and Botswana?s Ramogapedi Moshe (48,52).
Namibia?s Salti Eshitile won the women?s 1500m as well as 3000m. She won the 1500m in 4:36,86, ahead of Baji Molelekwa of Botswana and Ruth Mwenya of Botswana, while she won the 3000m in 9:59,78, ahead of Molelekwa and Praxedis Dim of South Africa.