Limba Mupetami
Chief Administrator of the Namibia Sports Commission Freddy Mwiya expressed confidence in Team Namibia’s potential to secure additional medals at the ongoing
13th African Games in Accra, Ghana.
With four medals already in the bag, primarily from the outstanding performances of swimmers with Ronan Wantenaar’s gold, Alexander Skinner’s silver and Jessica Humphrey’s bronze, the team has made a strong start.
Wrestler Ester Abrahams also contributed with a bronze. Mwiya anticipates further success in cycling and swimming. Despite currently sharing the seventh ranking spot with Ghana in the competition, he acknowledges the need for continuous improvement for Team Namibia.
“We stand a chance to collect more medals. The cycling team also did well and came very close to a podium finish, and we expect them to get medals for Namibia,” said Mwiya.
He further commends the well-organised games, with a great opening ceremony and Africa’s advancing structural development in sports.
Egypt leads the medals table with 50 medals, including 31 gold, 11 silver and nine bronze medals, with South Africa in second winning 23 medals in total comprising seven gold, six silver and 10 bronze. Algeria sits in third position with 35 medals: six gold, 14 silver and 15 bronze. Namibia is represented by 78 athletes and 47 officials across seven sports codes, namely athletics, cycling, swimming, cricket, karate, chess and wrestling. The cricket team as well as the karatekas are now out of competition after failing to advance to the next stage.
The games will run until 23 March, and double as qualifiers for June’s 2024 Paris Olympics.
-lmupetami@nepc.com.na