The ongoing heatwave in the United Kingdom could see some Commonwealth Games events moved to the morning or late in the afternoon, but Namibia’s athletes will have to adapt, Namibia National Olympic Committee (NNOC) Abner Xoagub has said.

Heatwaves in Europe have become more frequent, more intense and last longer. 

It has caused fires in several countries as well as various emergencies and according to international reports, 13 people have thus far died in the United Kingdom due to the extreme heat.

Xoagub told New Era Sport the heatwave is brought by climate change, further citing the 2020 Olympic in Tokyo last year, which saw the marathon and other competitions moved to different cooler locations due to the heat.

“Team Namibia has been preparing in the cold environment (winter) and will have to adapt to the heat in Birmingham. The coaches and managers will have to get the athletes acclimatised,” he said. 

“The medics and the supplements supplied by Deophamar will add value to the acclimatisation of the athletes. Certainly, the (heat) issues have been raised during the Games’ daily organising meetings with the chefs de mission of the 72 nations participating at the Games,” he said.

Despite now having to deal with the heat, Team Namibia already had other challenges leading up to the games.

Xoagub said the team experienced lack of funding to compete in various preparatory competitions ahead of the games, and that negatively impacted their preparations.

“We funded preparations of the athletes with funds received from the Commonwealth Games Federation, but that was not enough.”

“The second challenge was the lack of or cancelations of a number of continental and global competitions, resulting in continuous amendment of the qualification criteria by the Commonwealth Games Association Criteria Committee.”

Xoagub added that setbacks aside, the country has a large contingent at the Games this year in a long time. 

“Although the athletes did not get much competitions as one would have liked for them, the team is mentally positive and motivated. We are going to the Games to compete and win medals for the Land of the Brave,” he said.

Namibia has a team of 32 athletes, one guide, 22 officials and coaches – and will compete in athletics, para-athletics, cycling, boxing, lawn bowling, swimming, triathlon, wrestling and gymnastics at the competition that starts on Thursday and ends 8 August.

The first group arrived on Saturday, while the last group of Namibian athletes are expected to depart for the games today.

At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, held in Gold Coast, Australia, Team Namibia finished 19th among 54 Commonwealth nations and 18 territories that competed at the event. 

Namibia won two gold medals: in marathon and boxing.

- mkambukwe@nepc.com.na