Namibia’s Beata Naigambo produced an excellent performance on Sunday when she won the Eindhoven Marathon in Holland in a new Namibian record time of 2:31:01. Naigambo’s winning time was well below the previous Namibian record of 2:32:30 which was established by Helalia Johannes at the Dublin Marathon in October 2008, while it was also a big improvement on Naigambo’s previous personal best time of 2:33:05.
Naigambo showed great consistency throughout the race and became stronger as the race progressed. She was amongst the leaders from the start and reached the 10km mark in a fast time of 36:14. When she reached the 21km halfway mark in a time of 1:16:13 she was already well set to break the Namibian record.
Naigambo even managed to increase her pace over the second half of the marathon and reached the 30km mark in a time of 1:48:10, before crossing the finish line in a new Namibian record time.
Naigambo and Lydia Kurgat of Kenya opened up a lead on the rest of the field early on but Naigambo managed to shake off Kurgat’s challenge over the final stages of the race. She eventually finished 25 seconds ahead of Kurgat who followed in second place, while Virginie Vandroogenbroeck of Belgium came third, well behind in 2:43:48.
Naigambo has been in fine form over the past year and won the 2008 Namibia Sportswoman of the Year award after finishing 28th at the Beijing Olympic Games.
This year she competed at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in August where she came 24th in a then personal best time of 2:33:05.