Africa-Press – Namibia. HELALIA Johannes gave a great performance to win a bronze medal in the women’s marathon at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Saturday.
Jessica Stenson of Australia won gold in 2:27:31, while Margaret Muriuki of Kenya won silver in 2:28:39. Johannes finished third in 2:28:39, which was 1:09 behind the winner.
Johannes was amongst the leaders from the start and after the halfway mark she broke clear at the front with Stenson and Muriuki.
Johannes, however, dropped behind the leaders with about 5km to go but managed to finish third, more than two minutes ahead of Eloise Wellings of Australia.
It was Johannes’ second Commonwealth Games medal after she won gold at the Gold Coast Games in Australia in 2018.
Johannes’ compatriot Alina Armas gave a brave performance to finish 7th in 2:33:30, finishing just about 6 minutes behind the winner.
Earlier Namibia’s Tomas Rainhold came 13th in the men’s marathon in 2:24:30. Victor Kiplangat of Uganda won gold in 2:10:55, followed by Felix Simbu of Tanzania (2:12:29) and Michael Githae of Kenya (2:13:16).
In swimming, Ronan Wantenaar narrowly missed out on qualifying for the semifinals of the Men’s 100m breaststoke.
He finished finished fourth in his heat in 1:03,14, which initially put him on the reserve list for the semifinals, but he was eventually knocked out due to faster times in the other heats.
Wantenaar did, however, have the satisfaction of setting a new Namibia record, after breaking his former record of 1:03,64.
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