Africa-Press – Namibia. A strong Namibian team of 24 para-athletes left for Johannesburg last night to compete at the South African Sports Association for the Physically Disabled National Championships from 19 to 23 March.
The team includes established international stars like Ananias Shikongo, Johannes Nambala and Johanna Benson, but several exciting upcoming athletes have been included and Mike Hamukwaya, the secretary general of the Namibia Paralympics Committee said he had high hopes for the team.
“We’ve got a strong team and I think we will have a big medal haul again, but our athletes need to push hard to improve their times. Some of the athletes can still qualify for the Commonwealth Games, but we also have a lot of exciting upcoming athletes and our main aim is to gain experience for the 2023 All Africa Games in Ghana, which will host the first Paralympic Games in Africa, that will be separate from the able-bodied games,” he said.
According to Hamukwaya several athletes still have a chance of qualifying for the Commonwealth Games, although the selection process is quite complicated and only certain selected categories will compete in Birmingham. As such, one of Namibia’s star para-athletes of recent years, Johannes Nambala will not be able to compete as his classification will not feature at the Commonwealth Games, but several other athletes are still in the running to qualify.
They include experienced stars like Shikongo and Benson, as well as upcoming athletes like Bradley Murere, Chris Kinda, Martha Haitekalute, Petros Kaluli and wheelchair athlete Roodly Gowaseb.
According to Hamukwaya the top eight ranked countries in each event can qualify for the Commonwealth Games, although the Namibian Commonwealth Games Association will still make the final selection, which is also dependant on the overall number of places allocated to team Namibia.
With guides then also having to be factored in, the eventual number of para-athletes could only be about four or five, but Hamukwaya said it was important that the athletes strive to do their best in Johannesburg to strengthen their chances.
“The top eight ranked countries can qualify for the Commonwealth Games, but our athletes must push to be amongst the top five to strengthen their chances of being selected,” he said.
Shikongo, who won a silver medal in the T11 400m at the Tokyo Paralympics last year is a near certainty to qualify in the men’s T11/12 100m event, as his time in Tokyo of 11,21 seconds currently puts him second on the Commonwealth Games rankings list.
Another athlete who stands a good chance of qualifying is Bradley Murere in the Men’s T47 100m, after he recently won an event in Stellenbosch in a personal best time of 11,13 seconds, which puts him second on the Commonwealth Games rankings list.
Hamukwaya is also excited about the prospects of Roodly Goreseb, who competed against able-bodies athletes at last weekend’s Khomas Championships and won the 1 500m and 5 000m, while he came third in the 800m.
“Roodly has improved a lot since he started about three years ago – he upgraded his wheelchair and has been training hard, and now some of the able-bodied athletes are even complaining and saying that they should compete separately. But I want to thank Athletics Namibia for allowing us to compete together, because this has revolutionised para-athletics in Namibia,” he said.
Another upcoming athlete who stands a chance of qualifying for the Commonwealth Games is the 23-year-old Chris Kinda, who pushed Shikongo all the way in the Men’s T11 400m race at the Khomas Championships on Saturday.
Going into the home straight, Kinda took the lead, but Shikongo fought back to beat him by a split second, as they recorded respective times of 52,22 and 52,38 seconds.
Kinda, however, will not be competing at the Sasapd Championships, since he will leave for Dubai tomorrow to compete at an international IPC Grand Prix, where he hopes to be reclassified in the totally blind T11 category.
“Chris used to compete in the T12 category for partially blind, but his sight deteriorated over the past three years and now he is totally blind, so we need to reclassify him. They, however, won’t have internationally qualified officials at the Sasapd Championships, so Chris will have to compete at the Dubai Grand Prix to be reclassified,” he said.
Kinda also came second to Shikongo in the T11 100m in a time of 11,72 seconds which puts him seventh on the Commonwealth Games rankings list.
Kinda’s trip has been made possible through a sponsorship from the Commonwealth Games Association, while the Namibian team’s trip to Johannesburg has been made possible through sponsorships by the government and Nampower.
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