Maurice Kambukwe
It has been almost more than two weeks since the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) gave the nod to various non-contact sport codes to resume training under stipulated rules and regulations.
To this end, the local sports governing body is satisfied with the overall conduct and compliance shown by the federations.
The NSC gave the green light to non-contact sport codes such as darts, cricket, swimming, tennis, squash, athletics, archery, chess, cricket, cycling, swimming, golf, gymnastics and motorsport to resume training.
They were allowed to return to their respective training grounds but on strict conditions that athletes do not share equipment, they keep a safe distance from each other while training and that federations ensure thy accommodate a limited number of people at training grounds.
Speaking to New Era Sport, NSC marketing and public relations manager Chalo Chainda expressed satisfaction with the manner in which the various federations have been conducting themselves and the level of compliance to the set rules and regulations shown.
“So far we are very happy with the way federations are complying with rules and regulations. We visited cricket last week, where we attended one of their training sessions and you could see everyone had all their necessary equipment with them, things such as hand sanitisers and were making sure no sharing of equipment took place. Social distancing could also be seen,” said Chainda.
He added that the NSC also paid surprise visits to various swimming clubs and among those visited are the Dolphins Swimming Club, where they were also impressed with the way the swimmers handled themselves and how regulations were generally followed.
“They were complying very well with the set measures and what impressed us the most is the fact that coaches and swimmers are all having their individual changing rooms and swimmers are swimming separately.”
Chainda said more surprise inspections are lined up and they will include other parts of the country as the NSC continues to enforce stipulated health regulations.
“We are working tirelessly, making sure all regions are visited to see if they are obeying the rules put in place. We also visited Erongo, Omaheke and Otjozondjupa regions and as we speak, the NSC chief administrator Freddy Mwiya is currently in Katima Mulilo in the Zambezi region arranging various inspections,” he highlighted.
Chainda said although he and his team seem to be satisfied with the way various sport codes are complying with rules and regulations, he is however a bit worried with codes that are using indoor training facilities and how they are keeping up with measures.
-mkambukwe@nepc.com.na