Namibian para-athletes Ananias Shikongo, along with his guide Even Tjiuiju, and Chris Kinda, partnered with his guide Kelvin Goagoseb, are poised for action today at the Paralympic Games in Japan. 

The athletes will compete in the T11 100metre (m) heats, which are scheduled to commence at 9h42. Later in the evening, Johannes Nambala will take to the track in the T13 400m heat, with his race set for 20h22.

This follows a weekend of mixed results for Team Namibia. On Saturday, Shikongo, guided by Tjiuiju, and Kinda, guided by Goagoseb, participated in the men’s 400m T11 Round One heats. Shikongo and Tjiuiju delivered a strong performance, finishing third in their heat with a time of 53.51 seconds. However, this was not sufficient to advance to the semi-finals, leaving the pair disappointed.

Kinda and Goagoseb managed to finish their heat in 52.95 seconds, earning them 8th place overall and a spot in the semi-finals. Despite this commendable achievement, their time in the semi-finals was not enough to secure a place in the final, marking the end of their 400m campaign.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Nambala faced a challenging race in the final of the men’s T13 100m event. Despite entering the final with a seasonal best time of 11.10 seconds, Nambala was unable to keep pace with his competitors, and finished last in the final.

In addition to these efforts, Petrus Karuli competed in the T37 100m yesterday. He finished in fifth place with a time of 56.97 seconds, which unfortunately did not qualify him for the semi-finals. 

The heat was won by Algeria’s Allah Tissoui, who clocked 51.59 seconds. Ukraine’s Yaroslav Okapinskyi secured second place with a personal best of 52.04 seconds, followed closely by Russia’s Andrei Vdovin, who finished third in 52.15 seconds. Poland’s Michal Kotkowski took fourth place with a time of 52.45 seconds.

Karuli will now turn his focus to the 200m event, which is scheduled for Friday at 20h19, where he will aim to deliver a strong performance for Namibia. -lmupetami@nepc.com.na