Africa-Press – Namibia. THE athletics events got underway at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham yesterday, with Gilbert Hainuca giving Namibia a fine start when he qualified for the semifinals.
Running in Heat 5, Hainuca finished third in a time of 10,31. Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya, who holds the African record of 9,77 seconds, won the heat in 10,07 seconds, followed by Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon in 10,08.
Some of the other heat winners who will be amongst the favourites to medal include Favour Ashe of Nigeria who won Heat 1 in 10,12; Akani Simbine of South Africa who won Heat 2 in 10,10; Raymond Ekevwo of Nigeria who won Heat 4 in 10,14; and Yupun Abeykoon of Sri Lanka who won Heat 6 in 10,06.
Despite qualifying for the semifinals, Hainuca was not too happy with his performance.
“It wasn’t the best of my races – I would say my exhibition was totally wrong. I could feel it throughout the race, but I managed to qualify for the semifinal and just hope that I will execute much better then,” he said.
Cameroon’s Raphael Mberlina was disqualified for a false start in Heat 4, while the same fate befell Hainuca at the African Championships in Mauritius in June, but he said he had learnt his lesson.
“It didn’t really have much of an effect on me, because I learnt my lesson at the African Champs in Mauritius. I just have to wait on the blocks and just wait for the gun to go off,” he said.
The men’s semifinals start at 20h10 tonight with Hainuca drawn to compete in the third semifinal .
In the men’s discus throwing event, Ryan Williams narrowly missed out on qualifying for the final when he came seventh in group B with a distance of 55,54.
The top six athletes in group A all qualified for the final, with the sixth-placed athlete, Josh Boateng of Granda’s distance being nearly a metre further than Williams’ effort at 56,51m. In Group B, the top six athletes also qualified for the final.
Williams’ throw was nearly two metres off his national record of 57,65m and he expressed disappointment with his effort after the event.
“I felt good, but I’m a bit disappointed with my distance. We had a strong group, so I feel privileged to be able to throw against these guys, and I’m very excited for the future, but I’m a bit disappointed I must say,” he said.
“Everything was perfect, but the distance just wasn’t there today, but hopefully next time. I feel my body is a bit tired, because of all the training and the weather is also a bit different so you need to adapt,” he added.
In lawn bowls, the first round of the men’s singles competition got underway yesterday, with Namibia’s Cabous Olivier losing his opening match 21-12 to Jamie Walker of England.
Walker led from the start, building up a 11-3 lead by the seventh end, and although Olivier managed to reduce the gap to 14-9 by the 11th end, Walker pulled away in the end to complete a comfortable victory.
On Monday evening, Namibian swimmer, Ronan Wantenaar, reached the semifinal of the 50m breaststroke where he came eighth in a new Namibian record of 28,56 seconds.
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