Otniel Hembapu

Namibia’s sprinting sensation Christine Mboma will today rank among the top favourites to steal headlines when the much-anticipated World Athletics Irena Szewinska Memorial Continental Gold Tour gets underway in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

The 18-year-old Mboma, who is the current U/20 world record holder with her time of 49.22 seconds set at the Namibian National Championships in April this year, will today compete in the 400m race, where she will face from Poland’s Justyna Święty-Ersetic, a 2018 European Champion and runner-up at this year’s Indoor European Championships.

Mboma ranks among the world’s fastest women this year, and will face stiff competition from America’s Kaylin Whitney, who is a three-time U/20 World Championships medallist. But the Namibian sprinting ace has in recent weeks proved that her remarkable performances at continental and international levels are no fluke as she continues to break and improve
records with relative ease.

The Irena Szewinska Memorial is held annually in honour of late Polish athletics legend Irena Szewinska, who died in 2018. Irena was one of the
world’s foremost athletes for nearly two decades, in multiple events. She is the only athlete in history, male or female, to have held the world record in the
100m, 200m and 400m.