Athletics

The Rio Tinto Rossing Marathon Championships, organised by Swakop Striders, will take place for the 19th consecutive year in Swakopmund on Saturday, 20 February.

In its continuous bid to support the event, Rio Tinto Rossing Uranium has significantly increased the prize money from previous years. This year a total of N$60 000 in prize money will be available with the men and women’s marathon winners each receiving N$10 000.

Welwitchia Athletics Club was the overall winner of the Athletics Namibia Club Championships in Oshakati on Saturday. Welwitschia won the championships with a total of 73 points, receiving the winner’s cheque of N$5 000 from Athletics Namibia.

Windhoek Hochland Sport Club came second with 63 points, receiving the runners-up cheque of N$2 500, while Ohangwena Star Athletics Club came third with 43 points, receiving N$1 000.

2009 was a watershed for Athletics Namibian as Alpha Kangueehi’s controversial reign as president finally came to an end. Kangueehi had presided over Namibian athletics for more than five years during which time sponsorships dried up while national track and field as well as cross-country championships steadily diminished.

The Frank Fredericks Foundation announced several scholarships totalling N$36 000 for top Namibian junior athletes at a press conference on Tuesday. A total of six athletes were beneficiaries of the scholarships, sponsored by Namibia Beverages, following their performances at the Coca Cola Frank Fredericks Invitational in April 2009.

Four athletes, namely Hardus Maritz, Merilyn Diamond, Dantago Gurirab and Klaudia Moses received N$6 000, after excelling in two events each, while Otilie Shiyakela and Jolene Jacobs each received N$3 000 for excelling in one event.

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.

Johannes Naitembu and Helena Iipinge each received N$10 000 after being crowned as the overall Men and Women’s winners of the 21km Old Mutual Victory Races series at the awards ceremony in Windhoek on Wednesday.

According to the rules of the series, the overall category winners were determined by taking the two best times of an athlete in the series. Athletes also had to participate in the final in Windhoek and at least one other event of the series.

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.

Namibian long jumper Stephan Louw failed to qualify for the finals at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany on Thursday. Competing in Group A of the first qualifying round, Louw finished 14th out of 23 athletes with a best effort of 7,74 metres.

Louw overstepped with his first jump and then cleared 7,74m and 7,69m with his next two efforts.

This was well outside the Namibian record of 8,24m that he set in Germiston, South Africa in January 2008. It was also outside his season’s best distance of 7,95m which he set in Praha, in the Czech Republic on June 8.

Ruben Indongo beat veteran Luketz Swartbooi by a mere three seconds to win the final leg of the Old Mutual Victory Races in Windhoek on Saturday. Indongo, who runs professionally in France from his home base in Marseille, was back in Namibia for a short holiday and managed to upstage Namibia’s top local marathon athletes to win the first prize of N$1 000. But it was not easy as he was pushed all the way by the 43-year-old Swartbooi, before he managed to pull away in the final stages of the 21km road race.

The election of Frank Fredericks as Athletics Namibia’s new president seems to have restored some confidence in the beleaguered sport code, with Consolidated Sugar Industries on Friday announcing that it will soon start negotiations with Fredericks with a view to sponsoring athletics.

The announcement was made by CSI’s chief executive officer Deon van Dyk at a press conference to announce a sponsorship to Namibian marathon athlete Reinhold Iita.