NAMIBIA’S Olympic silver medallist Christine Mboma is considering the 100m and 200m sprint double at major championships this year.
The 18-year-old is set to compete at June’s African Athletics Championships in Mauritius, the World Championships a month later in the USA as well as the Commonwealth Games in the United Kingdom.
“We will see whether we can do that (double) at the African Championships this year first and then later on at the Worlds,” her coach Henk Botha told BBC Sport Africa.
The BBC’s African Sports Personality of the Year has already started testing her form in the shorter sprint.
This week she ran a new personal best and the joint second fastest time of the year as she won the 100m at the Athletics South Africa Grand Prix series in Bloemfontein in 11.15 seconds.
“It was a great race. I didn’t expect to run this time, so I’m happy with it,” Mboma said after the race.
“It’s my second 100m race of the year and I’m hoping to get faster.”
Botha admits that if she is to be competitive over 100m then she will need to run under 11seconds.
“These are early season times and we want to push it below the sub-11s, because that is the target in the 100m for top athletes.” Botha added.
“11.15 is her personal best. It is also a good measurement for us to know where we are as far as speed, explosivity, type of training and condition is concerned.”
In 2021 Mboma started the year as a 400m athlete, but World Athletics high testosterone regulations meant the Namibian could not compete in the one lap race unless she agreed to take medication.
Despite a late switch to the 200m, Mboma lost just once last year and that was the Olympic final to Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah who claimed gold in Tokyo.
The 200m is still her favourite event and this season’s priority.
“We will focus on the 200 but we will not forget about the 100,” Botha explained.
“A double means it is a bit of different training because the 100 and 200 are two different races.”
Mboma will be looking emulate Ivory Coast duo Marie-Josee Ta Lou and Murielle Ahoure, who along with Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare, are the only African women to have won sprint medals at the World Championships.
The Ivorians won silvers in the sprint double in 2017 and 2013 respectively. – bbc.com
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