Otniel Hembapu
WINDHOEK – After winning last year’s edition of the Confederation of Southern African Schools Sports Association (Cosassa) Athletics meet held in Botswana, Namibia has already set plans in motion and is gearing up to defend her crown at this year’s championships slated for eSwatini.
Namibia last year amassed 67 medals in total on their way to being crowned Cosassa Athletics champions in Francistown, Botswana, winning 26 gold, 21 silver and 20 bronze medals. Zimbabwe finished second with 73 medals (24 gold; 32 silver and 17 bronze) and hosts Botswana took third place with 79 medals (20 gold; 24 silver and 35 bronze). Zambia finished fourth with 17 medals (7 gold; 2 silver and 8 bronze).
The popular regional schools athletics championships will this year take place in the Kingdom of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) from 1-5 May and Namibia has already set out plans for the championships.
Speaking to New Era Sport yesterday, Namibia Schools Sport Union (NSSU) National Coordinator Solly Duiker said the national athletics championships will take place early next month and close to 200 athletes from all 14 regions will be expected to compete.
Upon completion of the national athletics championships, a team will be selected to form Team Namibia that will represent the country at this year’s Cosassa Athletics in eSwatini in May. Duiker also touched on various positives developments around Cosassa, especially at policy level. He said Cosassa recently held its executive meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa and a decision was taken that Cosassa should start working hand in glove with other continental schools sport associations and confederations as well as international federations in order to add value to their operations and competitions.