By Helge Schutz
ALGIERS
Helaria Johannes finished fifth in the women’s 20km road race at the All Africa Games on July 20.
She could well have finished fourth, but took two wrong turns towards the end which cost her a place. Johannes was disappointed at not winning a medal after the race, saying that the conditions were not ideal.
“The course was not very nice The first water point was only after 5km. Then, at the 19km mark, I got lost and took a wrong turn. After a while they called me back, but then I once again took a wrong turn, so I’m very disappointed with the officials for not helping me,” she said.
Before her wrong turns, Johannes had moved up to fourth place, but she was still quite far behind the third placed athlete and it was unlikely that she would have won a bronze medal.
Johannes started off well and was in the leading bunch for the first 8km. After that the field started spreading out, with Algeria’s Salen Souaid Ait taking the lead.
Ait stretched her lead, with Bayisa Atsede of Ethiopia following in second place, Kenza Dahmani of Algeria in third and Jepkdech Kutol of Kenya in fourth. Johannes dropped down to fifth, but made a great comeback over the final 5km.
She overtook Kutol to go fourth, but then lost her way towards the end and had to settle for fifth place. Ait went on to win the race in 1:13:35, followed by Atsede (1:13:54) Dahmani Algeria (1:14:10) and Kutol (1:15:14).
“I tried my best, but I’m disappointed,” Johannes said after the race. “I will now go and compete at the World Student Games in Bangkok and hope to do well there,” she said.
Herunga Comes Seventh
Tjipekapora Herunga’s amazing run at the Games came to an end when she finished 7th in the women’s 400m final. Herunga once again had a flying start, and was lying fourth going into the home straight. She however slowed down significantly over the final 30m and eventually finished seventh in a time of 53,13.
It completed a great competition for Herunga, who broke the Namibian record of 53,30 seconds twice during the Games. In the first round she came fourth in her heat in a time of 53,24 and in the semifinals she came second in 52,46 seconds.
Honiball Injured on Floor
Namibia’s men’s gymnastics team suffered a setback on Thursday, July 19 when Robert Honiball pulled his knee ligaments and had to withdraw from the team competition. Honiball had completed the rings and parallel bars when he started the floor exercise. He fell awkwardly after a jump and pulled his knee ligaments and had to withdraw from the competition. Honiball’s injury meant that Namibia could not come into contention for the team event anymore, but Honiball still managed to qualify for the individual finals in the rings and parallel bar. It is however doubtful whether Honiball will participate in the finals after his injury.
Namibia’s Ulrich Schoeman also qualified for the floor final, while he is the first reserve for the pommel horse final.