Athletics

Namibia Beverage Company, through its brand Coca Cola on Tuesday announced a sponsorship of N$120 000 for schools athletics in Namibia.

It is the 20th consecutive year that Coca Cola will be sponsoring schools athletics in Namibia, while this year also sees the 21st anniversary of the Namibia School Sport Union.

The biggest part of the sponsorship will go towards the NSSU Coca Cola National Athletics Championships to be hosted at the Windhoek Independence Stadium on March 30 and 31 where Namibia’s top junior athletes will be in action.

Frank Puriza and Globine Mayova gave a good account of themselves at the Yellow Pages Interprovincial Athletics Championships in Bellville, Cape Town on Saturday.

Competing against some of South Africa’s top athletes the two Namibians both won their heats.

Puriza won the first heat in the men’s 200m sprint in a time of 22,14 seconds, beating Ashford Motshau into second place in a time of 22,32 seconds. Puriza and Glenwill Lewis who won the second heat in the same time, posted the fastest times of the four heats.

A Namibian team of eight athletes left for South Africa on Wednesday to compete in the upcoming Yellow Pages Athletics Series.

Their coach and manager Letu Hamhola told Namibia Sport that they were trying to get more athletes to qualify for the African Championships in Benin and the Olympic Games in London and that the higher level of competition in South Africa would help them achieve that.

The Pinnacle Metropolitan Empowerment Trust (PMET) on Monday announced a sponsorship of N$99 400 for a Sport Mentorship Programme for promising athletes in partnership with the Frank Fredericks Foundation.

In terms of the programme, 40 selected promising athletes will receive assistance in tutoring and coaching from selected Namibian sports heros and role models.

At the launch, Frank Fredericks said that Namibia had at least 30 Olympians who had competed at the highest level, who could give back to their society.

Hitjiverue Kaanjuka and Globine Mayova, both of Khomas, were the stars of the show as they both won the sprint doubles at the Bank Windhoek National Senior Athletics Championships over the weekend.

Kaanjuka was a comfortable winner of the 100m in a fast time of 10,39 seconds, finishing well ahead of Dantago Gurirab and FC Pieterse, who came joint second in 10,81 seconds.

Gurirab had kept pace with Kaanjuka until the halfway mark but pulled up towards the end with a hamstring injury.

A total of 256 athletes from 11 regions have qualified to compete in the 2012 edition of the Bank Windhoek Senior National Athletics Championships which takes place on Saturday, February 25 and Sunday, February 26.

The crème de la crème of Namibia’s athletes residing both locally and internationally have geared up to compete in what promises to mark fierce competition.

Some notable names in the men’s sprint events include the current top ranked sprinter, Jesse Urikhob; the 2011 national champion Phillipus Paulus, Hitjivirue Kaanjuka and Basilius Karupu.

The Khomas Athletics Region held its final preparation trials on Saturday ahead of this weekend’s National Athletics Championships.

About 80 athletes participated at the trials which gave athletes an opportunity to improve their times and still try to qualify for the National Championships.

Unfortunately the camera timing device malfunctioned and the time keepers had to rely on hand-held times.

A new Rössing Namibia Marathon Champion was crowned in Swakopmund on Saturday at the annual Rössing Namibia Marathon Championship event. The event was hosted for the 21st consecutive year by Rössing this year.

Paulus Iyambo of the Namibian Defense Force became a first-time champion in the 42.2 km race with a personal best time of 2:23:04.

"It was a special but difficult victory. The wind was a factor today and the competition was very stiff, but I’m very happy to have won for the first time here during the Rössing Marathon.

The popular Charity Fun Walk over 5 kilometres in aid of the Cancer Association of Namibia and as part of the Rössing Namibia Marathon event for 2012 kicks off at 09:00 on Saturday, 18 February at the Swakopmund Athletics stadium.

This year’s fun walk is open to all members of the general public, families and employee groups and is held in aid of cancer awareness in Namibia.

The theme for this year is “Your health – your greatest asset” and the aim of the fun walk is to promote healthy lifestyles, fostering health, safety and teamwork exchanges.

The annual Khomas Region Track and Field Championship is billed for Saturday, February 18 at the Independence Stadium.

The annual regional championship is fully sanctioned by Athletics Namibia and a team will thereafter be selected to represent the Khomas region at the Athletics Namibia National Championships scheduled to take place on the 25 February at the same stadium. The due date for club entries is Tuesday, 14 February at 12h00.