Botha excited about upcoming athletes 

Athletics coach Henk Botha is excited about talented upcoming athletes he is preparing for the new season.

Botha shot to fame as the coach of Namibian sprint sensations Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, but is developing several other young athletes whom he believes have great potential to make it on the international stage.

One of them is sprinter Martin Nghililiwenga, who recently turned 16. He is originally from Tsumeb, although he has now been enrolled at Windhoek High School to attend Botha’s training sessions in the capital.

“I’m very excited about Martin. He ran 21 seconds flat in the 200m at the Khomas Championships this year, and at the national championships he made the 100m final as a 15-year-old and finished fifth in 10,6 seconds against the top senior sprinters in the country,” he says.

“His times at his age compare very favourably with former international stars like Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay, and he definitely has the potential to make us proud,” he says.

Botha says his main focus now is to prepare Nghililiwenga for the World Junior Athletics Championships in 2026.

“Martin has been in my training group for about six months now and he is doing very well. We will see if we can get him ready for the 2026 World Junior Champs at least as a finalist and build his career from there on,” he says.

Another budding star is the hammer thrower Ansune Smith (16), who recently broke the national senior record for the second time this year.

Ansune was originally overshadowed by her older sister, Annelize (18), who twice broke the national record earlier this year, improving it to 36,03m at the national championships on 27 April.

On that occasion, Ansune came second with a distance of 31,89m, but since then she has moved into pole position with some great performances.

On 8 June she broke the national record with a throw of 37,52m at the Khomas Championships, and two weeks ago she smashed the record with a throw of 41,62m at the National Youth Games at Oshakati.

“She definitely has the talent to go far. Her new record throw at Oshakati has put her very high on the rankings in southern Africa.

“I think she is currently second in her age group and among the top 10 in the under-19 category. We just need to get her more competitions and more exposure,” Botha says.

“She will be competing at a top event in Potchefstroom on 11 October, so that should be a good indication of her standard against stronger opponents,” he says.

Botha is also excited about the potential of the 400m athlete Nicholis du Plessis (19) and Kaylin Meyers, who recently turned 13.

“Nicholis ran under 55 seconds at the Africa Junior Champs last year, which is quite good. We are working on improving his technique now, and Kaylin is very talented – she recently came second at a youth event in South Africa, and I’m looking at developing her into a 400m athlete,” he says.

Meanwhile, Botha’s two prodigies, Mboma and Masilingi, are hard at work preparing for the new season.

“We have been concentrating on the 60m sprint, because I want to enter them for the Indoor World Championships next year. I think it will be a good platform to get them back into the system, because neither Christine nor Beatrice have competed in any big races for almost two years now.

“We want to get them back on the international scene, mostly just to get their confidence back and obviously to earn some money as well, because they are professional athletes,” he says.

“They are both just training in their tekkies at the moment, but Beatrice posted an impressive time of 7,23 seconds, which is just outside the indoor world champs qualifying time of 7,15 seconds, while Christine posted 7,65 seconds,” he says.