Namibian marathon runners Beata Naigambo and Helalia Johannes finished 24th and 56th respectively in the women’s marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin on Sunday. Naigambo completed the marathon in a new personal best time of 2 hours 33 minutes 5 seconds, but Johannes’ time of 2:50:19, was well below her personal best and Namibian record time of 2:32:30.
The marathon was won by Xue Bai of China in 2:25:15, with Yoshimi Ozaki of Japan second in 2:25:25 and Aselefech Mergia of Ethiopia third in 2:25:32.
Both Namibians got off to a good start and were in the leading bunch of runners during the early stages. By the 10km mark, Johannes was lying 18th overall, only one second behind the leader, while Naigambo was lying 23rd overall, a further second behind.
The leaders however picked up the pace shortly afterwards, as the leading group started to break up and by the 15km mark Naigambo was 28 seconds off the pace in 16th position, while Johannes had dropped well back to 38th position, 1:31 behind the leader.
By the halfway mark Naigambo was lying 27th overall, 33 seconds behind the leader, and after 25km, she was 47 seconds behind the leader. Although she continued to fall further behind the leaders, Naigambo managed to overtake three more athletes to finish 24th overall. This was an improvement on her performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games where she came 28th overall in a time of 2:33:29.
Johannes however seemed to be struggling with an injury and dropped further back as the race progressed. She eventually crossed the finish line in 56th position in obvious discomfort. Johannes finished 40th at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2:35:22.
On Saturday, Namibia’s Rainhold Iita failed to finish the men’s marathon after dropping out of the race.