Maurice Kambukwe

Following Sunday’s scintillating performance that earned him a silver medal in the men’s T11 400m at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics, Namibian sprinter Ananias Shikongo will tomorrow be looking to take it a step further when action gets underway in the men’s T11 100m heats.

His silver medal win on Sunday was Namibia’s first in this year’s games, and pressure will again mount on him when they take to the track for the T11 100m heats, which are expected to feature some of the world’s top sprinters.

At the last Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016, Shikongo bagged three medals for Namibia – a gold medal in the T11 200m and two bronzes in the T11 400m and 100m races. In fact, he scooped the 200m gold with a Paralympic record time of 22.44 seconds.

Going into the heats scheduled for the early hours of Wednesday, he will be gunning to improve his 2016 Rio Paralympics bronze by making it past the heats and eventually winning gold or silver in the final. The T11 100m semi-finals will also take place tomorrow (around 14h12). 

Also in action tomorrow for Team Namibia will be sprinter Johannes Nambala, who will strut his stuff in the men’s T13 400m heats at around 13h19. On Sunday, Nambala finished in a dismal sixth place in the men’s T13 100m final, and will tomorrow be looking to dust himself off with a much-improved performance in the 400m race.

At the 2016 Paralympics, Nambala was one of the country’s top performers as he won silver in both the 100m and 400m events.  With him now out of contention in the 100m event, Nambala has his sights firmly fixed on the 400m competition.

- mkambukwe@nepc.com.na