Athletics Namibia (AN) president Erwin Naimhwaka said the federation is still optimistic it will host its remaining championships scheduled for the year.

AN called off most of its planned activities when the state of emergency was declared in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In an interview with Nampa, Naimhwaka said the AN board sat in May when they revised the athletic calendar, but with the current increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in Namibia, the AN Board are yet to meet and decide on the way forward.

“Our next event is planned for 26 September and that will be the Windhoek Grand Prix and then in October we will have an event in Keetmanshoop and Oshakati, but the nationals are now moved to November,” he said.

He added that despite having a revised calendar, the health of athletes and officials is of utmost importance. “The hosting of all the remaining competitions will depend on how COVID-19 evolves. We are still assessing if it will go ahead or not but we have not sat since May to look at how the infections are increasing and see if our competitions will go ahead with the revised calendar,” Naimhwaka said.

He stated that if the pandemic continues, AN will follow the regulations that will be in place at that time both locally and internationally. 

– Nampa