WINDHOEK – In 2010 the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) premiered in Singapore in an effort to adequately prepare qualified athletes and to offer those that haven’t qualified a platform to do so.
In response to that numerous African countries have stepped up their efforts to create the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) Games. With the second edition of the Youth Olympics coming up next year August in Nanjing/China, African countries will once again compete in the ANOCA Games with the Botswana capital, Gaborone, being the host. The event will get underway during May 22 to 31, 2014.
Speaking in front of various sports administrators, Joan Smit, Secretary General of the Namibia National Olympic Committee (NNOC) took pleasure in announcing that so far five Namibian athletes will participate in the games slated for neighbouring Botswana. Four of these youngsters received a universality place, a place left open for athletes from under-represented nations regardless of qualifying marks. This is to ensure that every nation will be able to send at least four athletes.
Namibian archery, tennis, athletics and gymnastics will be represented courtesy of the universality places. The fifth Namibian athlete is swimming ace Zanre Oberholzer.
The 14-year-old managed to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games and ANOCA Youth Games at the world swimming championships in Barcelona earlier this year. Yet, five Namibians aren’t enough and Smit therefore urged sports administrators of all sports codes represented at the ANOCA Games to put forward the names of their best athletes by the end of October, hoping that they will be given a chance to battle it out in Botswana. Unfortunately, neither the organising committee in Botswana nor the International Olympic Committee (IOC) could, to this day, give the NNOC the exact qualification criteria for all sports codes that the Namibian athletes would have to achieve, in order to go to Gaborone.
Smit said: “We see our young athletes rising to the occasion more and more often, and we hope to send a strong, competitive team to Botswana. We ask our sport bodies to give us the names and copies of the passports of the athletes they believe to be strong enough to for the ANOCA games. Once we are given the qualification criteria, we can see who is eligible to go.”
Staff Reporter