Stop pessimistic attitude, says AN president
The president of Athletics Namibia, Erwin Naimwaka, is satisfied with the performance of Namibian athletes at the recently ended African Senior Athletics Championships in Nigeria despite the fact that they did not win any medals.
Namibia sent eight athletes to Nigeria to participate in 21st edition which ran from 1 to 5 August but the end result was disappointing in terms of medal collection.
Naimwaka said that people tended to focus too much on medals rather than the overall performance of the athletes.
“Yes, there is always ridicule that athletes are old, with some people suggesting that we send different and younger athletes to championships, however, the athletes who were taking part in Asaba were sent because they met the overall selection criteria,” explained Naimwaka.
He further added that athletes did well because they went as far as the semi-finals and even broke the Namibian relay record.
“We need to stop with the negative attitude and instead look at the overall picture.
“If athletes qualify, we will do everything in our power to support them and we need to work on implementing competition structures to help improve the athletes further,” he said.
One of the athletes, Ernst Narib, said the failure of Namibian athletes was because of lack of resources and regular competitions.
“The reason we fail to compete against the best athletes in Africa and the world is because of a lot of factors which are unfortunately misunderstood by those who are not having sufficient knowledge of sports and the development of athletes.
“It's like pushing a person into the deep ocean asking him or her to swim without giving them the tools or teaching them to swim. The marathon runners do great and even win medals because they are exposed to international races in South Africa and they also have a lot of highly paid races in Namibia which at times pays up to N$15 000 or more for winners, while track and field only pays around N$2000 at national championships.
“I'm not trying to blame or make excuses but how can a local athlete with zero international races or experience compete for a medal against athletes like Akani Simbine, Caster Semenya, Isak Makwala who are exposed to about 30 international races and hence, gain experience while we in Namibia only have about four competitions the entire year,” Narib stated.
Narib also said the government did not help athletes but requested metals when they learned athletes were travelling to championships.
He further said that people who were given mandatory responsibility to run developing programmes put the money in their pockets, further disabling them.
“Until we start to help athletes get more experience and international races and cut out the corruption we will not be able to produce track and field medals,” he said boldly.
The Namibian sprinters who were in Nigeria were Jolene Jacobs, Tjipekapora Herunga, Ernst Narib, Hardus Maritz, Roger Haitengi, Even Tjiviju, Gilbert Hainuca and Mahmad Bock.
Winners
Kenya walked away with 19 medals: eleven gold, six silver and two bronze medals.
South Africa, who hosted and won the last edition in Durban, won a total of 30 medals made up of nine gold, 13 silver and eight bronze medals.
Team Nigeria got 19 medals made up of nine gold, five silver and five bronze medals.
The championships, held under the auspices of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), are held biennially on even years.
LIMBA MUPETAMI
Naimwaka said that people tended to focus too much on medals rather than the overall performance of the athletes.
“Yes, there is always ridicule that athletes are old, with some people suggesting that we send different and younger athletes to championships, however, the athletes who were taking part in Asaba were sent because they met the overall selection criteria,” explained Naimwaka.
He further added that athletes did well because they went as far as the semi-finals and even broke the Namibian relay record.
“We need to stop with the negative attitude and instead look at the overall picture.
“If athletes qualify, we will do everything in our power to support them and we need to work on implementing competition structures to help improve the athletes further,” he said.
One of the athletes, Ernst Narib, said the failure of Namibian athletes was because of lack of resources and regular competitions.
“The reason we fail to compete against the best athletes in Africa and the world is because of a lot of factors which are unfortunately misunderstood by those who are not having sufficient knowledge of sports and the development of athletes.
“It's like pushing a person into the deep ocean asking him or her to swim without giving them the tools or teaching them to swim. The marathon runners do great and even win medals because they are exposed to international races in South Africa and they also have a lot of highly paid races in Namibia which at times pays up to N$15 000 or more for winners, while track and field only pays around N$2000 at national championships.
“I'm not trying to blame or make excuses but how can a local athlete with zero international races or experience compete for a medal against athletes like Akani Simbine, Caster Semenya, Isak Makwala who are exposed to about 30 international races and hence, gain experience while we in Namibia only have about four competitions the entire year,” Narib stated.
Narib also said the government did not help athletes but requested metals when they learned athletes were travelling to championships.
He further said that people who were given mandatory responsibility to run developing programmes put the money in their pockets, further disabling them.
“Until we start to help athletes get more experience and international races and cut out the corruption we will not be able to produce track and field medals,” he said boldly.
The Namibian sprinters who were in Nigeria were Jolene Jacobs, Tjipekapora Herunga, Ernst Narib, Hardus Maritz, Roger Haitengi, Even Tjiviju, Gilbert Hainuca and Mahmad Bock.
Winners
Kenya walked away with 19 medals: eleven gold, six silver and two bronze medals.
South Africa, who hosted and won the last edition in Durban, won a total of 30 medals made up of nine gold, 13 silver and eight bronze medals.
Team Nigeria got 19 medals made up of nine gold, five silver and five bronze medals.
The championships, held under the auspices of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), are held biennially on even years.
LIMBA MUPETAMI
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