Let's groom them young

Recently I attended an awards ceremony in the capital and noticed a seven-year-old girl among the crowd. The girl was on her way to represent Namibia at the African Junior Chess Championships in Zimbabwe.

What a way to go, I thought. The Namibia Chess Federation is doing quite well to promote and incorporate children in their programme at a very young age.

That needs to be applauded because they are doing something right. Not only are they starting to groom young competitors, but they are nurturing and developing future stars at a young age. They say that one needs to straighten a tree branch whilst young, instead of trying to bend it later in life.

The federation's achievements made me think of our track and field athletes and how they are faring nationally and internally. We are not doing too well, I must say. I get the fact that we don't really have the funds or equipment to source our athletes but we need to think strategically when we want to involve our athletes in international competitions. In my opinion, which anyone is free to differ with: we should groom them young, just like we are doing with chess players.

Let me start at the top so that you get on the same page as me with this.

Five of Namibia's top athletes left for Jamaica some years back as part of a long-term training programme with the aim of improving Namibia's chances of winning medals at the Olympic Games.

Under the programme, the Namibian athletes trained with Jamaican sprint sensations. The programme formed part of the Vision 2016 athletics programme, implemented several years ago by the Ministry of Sport.

The programme failed. Why? Because we planned wrong. In my opinion you cannot send a 21-25-year-old for a development programme, especially in sprinting. Unless if you are grooming him or her for administrative purposes.

I mean it's logical – let's groom young, from ten upwards. Let's instil sport professionalism at a tender age. Let's scout early instead of sending ageing athletes to championships knowing very well that they are incapable of bringing medals home.

Look at marathoners in Ethiopia and Kenya for instance. Every time there is world championships we see young, new faces running with elite and more experienced runners and that's how they learn to do well despite the fact that they are just good natural runners.

I understand we never have enough money to get anywhere in sport in this country but imagine as an athlete, you wake up each day and toil at your sport. You don't wait for sponsors to come to your aid, but you lure them with your hard work.

Para-athletes in Namibia are a great example: they are naturally very hard-working. They know they have to train because they have a point to prove. They don't complain even when the going gets tough, they continue pushing.

However, our able-bodied athletes always have the same excuse: “There is no money. I failed because I did not prepare well.”

Who then are you waiting for to push you to train? If you know you have a major championship to prepare for, why wait a month before D-Day to start preparing? Our mentality is wrong.

However, as much as there are athletes who lack professionalism, so does the Ministry of Sport. Once I attended an event where a certain minister was scolding athletes for not doing this and that, but failed to point fingers at the ministry for failing athletes in every way possible.

At this point in time we know which sports codes are doing well. We know how we need to help them, but what do we do? We send half-prepared athletes to competitions with song and dance and expect them to bring honours home. “Put Namibia on the map,” we tell them. That's an understatement. Never once does a minister of sport visit these athletes while they are preparing and see how best to help them, but at media conferences we want to pose for pictures with these athletes, stealing their shine. Let's do the right thing.













































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