Athletics

Athletics Namibia has selected a team of 13 athletes to represent the country at the Confederation of African Athletics Southern Region Youth Championships which take place in Harare, Zimbabwe on May 27.

All the athletes represented Namibia at the recent Cossasa Athletics Championships in Gaborone, Botswana, where Namibia won the event with a total of 58 medals.

Christien Kruger, who won the award for the top girls Under 17 athlete and Israel Tjiramba who won the award for the top male Under 17 athlete in Gaborone, are both in the team.

Namibia’s speed queens Tjipekapora Herunga and Globine Mayova are confident of reaching even faster times this year as they prepare for more international events coming up this year.

Their coach Letu Hamhola said he hoped to send them to international athletics meetings in Europe, depending on finances, but they will definitely both be in action at the Africa Athletics Championships which take place in Benin from June 27 to July 1.

Herunga and Mayova have been in fantastic form at the South African Yellow Pages Series over the past two months, breaking number of records.

Namibia dominated the Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa (Cossasa) Athletics Youth Championships in Gaberone, Botswana over the weekend, winning a total of 58 medals. Zimbabwe came second with 31 medals while Zambia came third with 22 medals.

The Namibian team of 56 athletes brought home 58 medals in total, consisting of 23 gold, 22 silver and 13 bronze medals. Zimbabwe won 7 gold, 12 silver and 12 bronze medals and Zambia 7 gold, 6 silver and 9 bronze medals.

Namibian track sensations Globine Mayova and Tjipe Herunga were in tremendous form over the weekend, leading a Namibian haul of six new national records at the South African Open Athletics Championships in Pretoria.

Majova set two new records in the 100m and 200m; Herunga set a new 400m record and also improved upon the previous 200m record; Steffi van Wyk set a 100m hurdles record; and the three then joined up with Merlyn Diamond to set a new Namibian women’s4x100m relay record.

South Africa dominated the CAA Southern Africa Junior Athletics Championships in Windhoek on Saturday, winning a total of 36 medals, consisting of 20 gold, 11 silver and 5 bronze medals.

Namibia finished second in the medal standings with 6 gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze medals, while Botswana came third with 3 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals.

Botswana just pipped Zimbabwe, who finished fourth with 3 gold, 3 silver and 6 bronze medals.

More than 170 of SADC’s top junior athletes will converge on Windhoek this weekend to participate in the CAA Southern Africa Junior Athletics Championships on Saturday.

At a press conference in Windhoek on Wednesday the vice president of Athletics Namibia Alna Similo said that 10 SADC countries had already confirmed their participation and would arrive in Windhoek on Friday.

They are Angola, Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, Mauritius, Seychelles, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Zambia.

As the hosts, Namibia will have the biggest team of 55 athletes.

Namibian sprinters turned on the style in an electrifying and sensational third Yellow Pages meeting in the City of Tshwane on Friday night with African sprinting legends Frankie Fredericks and Mary Onyali looking on.

Globine Mayova showed  her class by breaking the 100m record for the second time in one week.

Helalia Johannes shattered the Namibian women’s marathon record when she came third in the Vienna Marathon on Sunday.

Johannes’ time of 2 hours 27 minutes 20 seconds was exactly two minutes faster than the previous record that Beata Naigambo set on January 27.

It was also more than three minutes faster than Johannes’ previous best and former national record time of 2:30:35 that she established when she won the Dublin Marathon in October 2011.

Fate Tola of Ethiopia won the women’s race at the Vienna Marathon for the second year in a row.

Globline Mayova ran herself in to the record books as she ran her best ever 100m in 11.76 at an international athletics event in Mauritius on Saturday.

She came second behind Carima Louami of France who won the race in a time of 11.58.

The previous Namibian national record which was set in 1988 by Marian Basson stood at 11,73, but according to Athletics Namibia president Frank Fredericks that record will remain a ‘provincial’ record since it was set before Namibia’s independence in 1990.

Athletics Namibia has selected a strong squad of 54 athletes to represent Namibia at the Confederation of African Athletics Southern Region Junior Championships that will take place in Windhoek on Saturday and Sunday, 28th and 29th April.

Since the event will serve as a qualifier for the World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain in July, the top Under 19 athletes from Southern Africa are expected to be in attendance at the Championships.