Mineworker shares bread and butter with youngsters

GABRIEL Gurirab works in the lab at Swakopmund’s Husab Uranium Mine, and uses his income to keep the Atlantic Wrestling Academy going. The academy is currently training and developing 40 young and upcoming wrestlers.

For the past two years Gurirab, who is one of the country’s top coaches and the vice president of the Namibian Wrestling Federation, and his students (aged six to 19) have been training on a large mat outside at Swakopmund’s Coastal High School.

“This is an indoors sport code, but we are not just wrestling each other, we are wrestling environmental conditions too – cold, heat, sun, mist, wind and rain. It is tough, and not very healthy, but I have kids here who find hope in this sport; they find strength, so we have to use what we can,” Gurirab says.

“Some of these children have the potential to become great sportsmen and women, but they need proper conditions to train in.”

Gurirab recently returned from South Africa where the Namibian national team was preparing for the Africa Wrestling Championship in Nigeria in April, and Olympic qualifiers.

“There are venues, but they are too expensive for me. I do coaching and offer the academy free of charge. I also try and meet parents halfway when it comes to event costs, so they do not have to carry that burden themselves. I do what I can to share my bread and butter, but when it comes to paying for a venue, it becomes impossible by myself,” he says.

Gurirab is calling on companies or institutions to assist with a proper venue.