Maurice Kambukwe 

The Namibia Paralympics Committee (NPC) will today officially learn the number of slots the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has allotted to Namibia for this year’s Paralympic Games.

With all qualifying competitions for this year’s Paralympics now done and dusted, NPC secretary general Michael Hamukwaya said IPC will today allocate the final number of slots to various countries, with Namibia also expected to receive final confirmation on the number of slots apportioned to her for the 2020 Summer Paralympic Games, which starts on 24 August and end 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

“Only when we get the letter from the IPC can we tell you who of our athletes have qualified and who have not. But I am optimistic we will get a good number of slots for this year’s Paralympics,” he said.

Hamukwaya said, unfortunately, there are no qualifying competitions left to participate in ahead of the games. “After tomorrow’s announcement on the slots, we won’t have any qualifying events for athletes to try and qualify. Whoever failed to meet qualifying times, have to wait until the next Paralympic Games,” he added.

On the athletes’ preparations, Hamukwaya said the athletes have for the past couple of months been busy with preparations and after finding out the number of slots given to Namibia, they will intensify their preparations. 

This year’s games will mark the 16th edition of the Paralympics. The games were initially scheduled to take place between 25 August and 6 September last year, but the IPC and the Tokyo organising committee postponed the 2020 Paralympics to this year due to the raging Covid-19 pandemic. This will mark the second time Tokyo is hosting the Paralympics, after hosting it in 1964 alongside the 1964 Olympics. This year’s games will also see the introduction of badminton and taekwondo
to the Paralympics programme, replacing sailing and 7-a-side football.

– mkambukwe@nepc.com.na