Maurice Kambukwe
Hesron Kapanga
Unam Athletics Club (AC) again collected the most points during the second Athletics Namibia (AN) Grand Prix held at the Independence Stadium in Windhoek on Saturday.
The students won several of the 15 events lined up for the day, amassing 106 points, followed by the Quinton-Steele Botes (QSB) AC with 87 points, and Kakadhinwa AC with 71.
They also won the first leg of the Grand Prix in Swakopmund last weekend. Unam’s Mahmad Bock won the 200m sprint in a time of 21.42, followed by Elvis Gaseb of Lions AC in 21.46, and Anthony Vries of Golden Cheetah AC in 21.76.
Bock and teammates Festus Kandiba, Onesmus Nekundi, Fred-Charles Pieterse won the 4x400m relay. Nandi Vass, who competes for Unam, ended second in the 200m behind Olympic silver medallist Christine Mboma with a time of 24.82 seconds, while Johanna Ludgerus from Namibia Correctional Services completed the podium spots with a time of 25.27 seconds.
Vass and teammates Hanganeni Fikunawa, Jade Nangula and Christine Mukumbi won the women’s 4x400m race, while a second Unam team ended third in the same race.
The men’s high jump was won by Wencuclaus Klaasman (Nampol) with a height of 1.95m, followed by Karsten Diergaardt (QSB) with 1.90m and Heino Keister (Tsaraxa-Aibes AS) with 1.85m.
Long way to improve my time – Mboma
Mboma, who is the 2021 BBC African Sports Personality of the Year, registered a dominant performance of 22.30 seconds that won her the 200m.
She started the year in superb style, winning the 100m with an impressive time of 11.25 at the first Grand Prix of the season in Swakopmund a week ago, and a week later she once again showed her competitors that she is in a class of her own.
Her 22.30 is, however, far from her season-best of 21.78.
Mboma, who runs for the QSB AC, said she was happy to win the race but she has a long way to go in improving her time.
“This is my last race here at home because we are now preparing to go to the United States of America (USA) for training as the athletics season would start soon. I want to be ready when the Athletics World Championships start, as well as the Commonwealth Games and Diamond League,” she said.
The Athletics World Championships will be held in the USA in July, while the Commonwealth Games will be held in Birmingham, England during July and August 2022.
Mboma’s coach Henk Botha told Nampa that this year, they are going to do things a bit different compared to 2021.
“We usually had our camp in Italy and we then move from there to competitions but we are going to Dubai and then move to the USA, where we will be based for a month, preparing for the Athletics World Champs,” he said, adding they will be in Italy when the Diamond League starts on 21 May.
The coach stated that despite his athletes having a busy schedule, they will be back for the AN National Championships slated for the first weekend of April in Swakopmund.
I’ll be ready for the big season- Masilingi
Mboma’s running mate and fellow Olympic sprinter Beatrice Masilingi missed out on Saturday’s race due to a suspected hamstring injury.
She last competed in Swakopmund during the first leg of the Grand Prix.
Masilingi said the injury is “nothing big”.
“We planned on assessing the injury during the Thursday training session but that did not happen due to heavy rains. I believe the whole injury won’t have any setback towards my preparations for the new athletics season. For now, I will continue training and work hard to get back in shape,” she told New Era Sport.
Botha said they will assess the injury today, and will then know the way forward.
– mkambukwe@nepc.com.na
– Nampa
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