Athletics

Namibian marathon athlete Beata Naigambo excelled when she came third at the Dongying Yellow River International Marathon in China on Sunday, May 12.

Competing against more than 7 000 athletes, Naigambo completed the 42km event in 2 hours 41 minutes 20 seconds.

The race was won by Jin Lingling of China in 2:38:52, while Selonie Kassa of Ethiopia came second in 2:40:44.

African athletes dominated the women’s marathon, with the next six placed athletes all coming from Kenya and Ethiopia.

Namibian athletes excelled at the recent Steinmetz Marathon in Gaborone, Botswana, with Helalia Johannes leading the way.

In the Women’s 10km category, Namibia clinched three of the first four places, with Johannes winning in a new Namibian record of 32 minutes 34 seconds.

The previous record of 33:07 was also established by Johannes in Stellenbosch, South Africa in 2006.

She finished well ahead of the Olivia Chitate of Zimbabwe who came second in 34:07, while Namibia’s Lavinia Haitope came third in 34:19 and Namibia’s Alina Armas fourth in 34:55.

Athletics Namibia have selected the following athletes to represent Namibia at the CAA Southern Region Youth Championships on May 24 and 25. The venue still has to be confirmed.

Women:
Daniela Walder (100m, 200m); Auguste Paulus (800m, 1500m), Hilya Shilongo (800m, 1500m); Laina Linus (1500m); Rauha Rebeus (1500m, 2000m steeplechase); Monique Vermeulen (shotput).

Men:

Namibia finished second overall at the COSSASA (Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa) Championships that recently took place in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Namibia won a total of 19 gold medals - the same as the overall winners, Zimbabwe, who won more silver and bronze medals.

Zimbabwe won 20 silver and 22 bronze medals, while Namibia won 11 silver and 8 bronze medals.

Zambia came third with 6 gold, 13 silver and 8 bronze medals; Botswana came fourth with 3 gold, 8 silver and 9 bronze medals; and Lesotho came fifth with 3 gold and 1 bronze medals.

The popular Old Mutual Victory Races series will take place for the 13th year consecutive year after Old Mutual announced a sponsorship of N$500 000 for this year’s event, at a press conference in Windhoek on Tuesday.

This year’s series will consist of four races, and will kick off in Oshakati on June 1.

The rest of the races take place in Swakopmund (June 22), Keetmanshoop (July 13) and Windhoek (July 27).

Some top class athletics was on display over the weekend when Namibia’s finest young athletes from all 13 regions converged on the Windhoek Independence Stadium for the Coca-Cola NSSU National Championships.

There were some fine performances, with a total of 11 national age group records being established while Divan Rossouw of Khomas also qualified for the World Youth Championships that will take place in Donetsk, Ukraine on July 10 - 14.

Marathon Sugar on Tuesday announced a N$45 000 sponsorship for the Namibia School Sport Union (NSSU) Athletics Championships which will be held in Windhoek on April 19 and 20.

The money will be used for the championships which will see a record number of 950 athletes competing from U13 to U19 level, as well as to help prepare a national youth team for the COSASSA Championships in Harare, Zimbabwe at the beginning of May.

Windhoek Hochland Sport Athletics Club won the Coca-Cola Top Ten Athletics Championships for the fifth year in a row on Saturday, but they received stiff competition from Namibia’s other leading athletics clubs.

WHS won with a total of 7 735 points, followed by Nampol Athletics Club on 6 261, Welwitschia 77 on 5 401, Golden Cheetahs on 4 815 and Swakop Striders on 4 725 points.

A total of 13 clubs competed in Saturday’s competition at Windhoek’s Independence Stadium.

Athletics takes centre stage on Saturday when the Coca-Cola Top Ten Club Championships will be held at the Windhoek Independence Stadium.

It will be the 16th consecutive year that the event takes place, which pits Namibia’s top clubs against each other. The winning club is determined after comparing the top five male and female performances of each club according to the IAAF points scoring system.

Furthermore, the performances need to be entered in five different events, namely the sprints, middle distance, throwing, hurdles and jumping events.

Globine Mayova continued her excellent form of late when she broke the Namibian 100m record at the Central Gauteng Provincial Championships in Germiston last weekend.

She won the 100m in a new record time of 11,34 seconds to break her former record of 11,54 which she set last year. It was also Mayova’s second national record within a week after she set a new 200m record of 23,34 in Pretoria the previous weekend.