Local sprinters Christine Mboma and Mohamed Bock are among a group of athletes who will represent Namibia at the upcoming 23rd edition of the African Athletics Championships in Cameroon, scheduled to take place from 15 to 25 June.
More than 3 500 athletes from across the continent are expected to converge in Cameroon’s economic hub Douala to compete for Olympic spots.
The competition promises to be a major sporting event, and will serve as qualifiers for the Olympic Games set for Paris, France from 26 July to 8 August.
Speaking to this publication yesterday, Berthold Karumendu of Athletics Namibia (AN) confirmed that this will be the last qualifying event for track and field events.
Although he didn’t give the exact number of athletes who will travel to Cameroon for the qualifiers, he said Mboma, Bock, David Dam, and Ndawana Haitembu are on the list. Dam and Haitembu recently competed at the Mozambique Invitational Meet, but did not qualify for the Paris games.
“All these top athletes will be given one more chance to qualify at the upcoming event. It’s going to be an intense event, but we are confident that many of our athletes will qualify as this is a crucial event for those seeking to book tickets to this year’s Olympic Games,” said Karumendu.
So far, four Namibian athletes have qualified for this year’s Olympic Games, namely swimmer Phillip Seidler, cyclists Vera Looser and Alex Miller as well as long-distance runner Helalia Johannes.
Meanwhile, Henk Botha, Mboma’s coach, has confirmed that the star sprinter will compete at the upcoming event. “Yes, we are going, and we are expecting a good test with the best on the continent,” he said.
It will be Namibia’s ninth consecutive appearance at the Olympic Games since the nation’s official debut in 1992 at the Barcelona Games, where they fielded a total of six athletes in three sports.
This remains the lowest number of Namibian athletes to date. Remarkably, at that historic event, Namibia clinched two of the five medals the country holds to date, courtesy of former sprinter Frank Fredericks.
Four years later, Fredericks again won two silvers.
The highest number of athletes Namibia has sent to the Olympics is 11, achieved in 2000 in Sydney and at the last Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan in 2021 from 23 July to 8 August, where sprinter Mboma won a silver medal in the 200-metre dash.
– mkambukwe@nepc.com.na