All Africa Games

Daniela Lindemeier narrowly missed out on a medal in the women’s 100m breaststroke final at the All Africa Games when she came fifth in a time of 1:15,48 on Thursday evening.

The race was won by Suzaan van Biljon of South Africa in 1:10,40, while Sarra Lajnef of Tunisia came second in 1:12,78.

The fight for the bronze medal was desperately close as the next three swimmers finished within half a second of each other.

Namibia’s medal hopes in boxing were dashed on Wednesday when their remaining three boxers all lost their quarterfinal fights.

Jafet Uutoni and Mejandjae Kasuto were unlucky to lose with both suffering controversial defeats.

Uutoni came up against Ronald Serugo of Uganda in the light flyweight category in an evenly balanced fight. Uutoni was busy from the start and took a 2-1 lead at the end of the first round, and a 5-4 lead at the end of the second.

It was a bad day at the office for Namibia at the All Africa Games on Tuesday as Titus Iyambo was knocked out in the second round of his boxing bout, while none of Namibia’s karatekas could make an impact. Swimmers Daniela Lindemeier and Quinton Delie also failed to finish amongst the medals.

Titus Iyambo came up against Gomotsang Gaasite of Botswana in the quarterfinals of the Under 64kg light welterweight category in confident mood, having previously beaten Gaasite at the African Zone 4 Championships.

Jafet Uutoni and Nataneal Kamati won their first round fights on Monday to progress to the quarterfinals of the 49kg and 52kg categories respectively at the All Africa Games in Maputo.

Uutoni recorded a comprehensive 24-6 victory against Akeen Adebamiji of Nigeria in their 49kg light flyweight fight.

Uutoni came out firing in search of a knockout punch but he often missed with wild swinging punches. Towards the end of the first round, he caught Adebamiji with a sharp left hook and the referee gave the Nigerian a standing eight count.

Namibian boxers gave a good account of themselves at the All Africa Games on Monday, winning two of their three bouts.

Johannes Simon was well beaten in the 56kg category, but Titus Iyambo and Mejandjae Kasuto both recorded good victories in the 64kg and 75kg categories respectively.

Johannes “Baluka” Simon suffered a comprehensive 24-12 defeat on points against South Africa’s Ayabonga Sonilla in the 56kg category.

The South African used his longer reach to good effect with his constant jab and by the end of the first round had built up a 8-1 lead.

Abrahm Louw won Namibia’s first medal at the All Africa Games when he came second in the men’s triathlon on Sunday morning.

Erhard Wolfaardt of South Africa won the gold medal in a time of 58:30, while Louw won silver in 59:13 and Wian Sullwald of South Africa bronze in 1:01:46.

There were some close shaves for Louw as he nearly crashed on the cycling leg, while he was also slapped with a 15 second time penalty for parking his bike illegally, but in the end he comfortably held on for second place.

The 10th All Africa Games were officially opened on Saturday evening with a colourful ceremony at the Zimpeto National Stadium in Maputo, Mozambique.

The run up to the opening had been a bit chaotic with thousands of people still queuing outside, but the opening started on time when the previous hosts, Algeria led the competing nations in.

The UNAIDS Give AIDS the Red Card Initiative was launched on Friday on the eve of the 10th All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique.

The initiative was first introduced at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and recently at the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany and aims to raise awareness about HIV and mobilize the sports community to participate actively in the global AIDS response.

Namibia had the honour of being the first country to be officially welcomed to the 10th All Africa Games on Thursday morning. A flag raising ceremony took place at the Athletes Village with the Namibian flag being the first to be raised while the Namibian anthem was broadcast and sung by Namibia’s delegation in attendance.

Preparations for the All Africa Games are in full swing with most of the African countries having arrived.

The Athletes Village is teeming with athletes from all over Africa, ranging from SADC neighbours like Botswana, Zimbabwe, Angola, Zambia, South Africa and Lesotho to countries further afield like Algeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Egypt.

Some of the biggest delegations include Nigeria with about 800 athletes and South Africa with more than 400.