Junior athletes come to the fore

Junior athletes came to the fore with some fine performances at the Marathon Sugar Mini Grand Prix in Windhoek on Saturday.

Although it’s still early in the season and the overall results were not that great, some up-and-coming junior athletes served notice with a number of impressive performances.

Leading the way was 14-year-old Nico Horn of Windhoek Hochland Athletics Club (WHS), who came third in the senior javelin event with a distance of 38,86m.

Although that was not remarkable in itself, it was Horn’s throw of 58,75m with a junior 600 gram javelin that made observers sit up and take notice. That was well over the national Under 15 record of 52,23m and indicated that Horn is primed to break that record at the National Schools Championships this year.

Event organiser Quinton Steele Botes was impressed, saying that Horn can still go far.

“Nico Horn threw over 58m and for a 14-year-old boy that was a brilliant achievement and I think he can still go far,” he said.

Horn, who has also represented Namibia in rugby and cricket at junior level, has a personal best throw of 59,40m that he achieved during training and according to his coach, Christine van der Linde, he has the right attitude to excel in the sport.

“Nico is a very humble boy who works hard and always listens to my advice. He constantly sets himself targets which he reaches, and I won’t be surprised if he goes over 60m this season,” she said.

The men’s javelin throw event was won by Andries Alberts of Welwitchia 77 Athletics Club with a distance of 48,52m, with Anro Swanepoel of WHS coming second with 41,62m.

Young athletes also dominated the sprint events.

The 20-year-old Tjimbatu Kauajo of the recently formed Namib Lion Athletics Club won the men’s 100m in 10,5 seconds, followed by Basilius Karupu of the Namibian Police (10,7) and Divan Rossouw of Windhoek Gymnasium (10,8).

The women’s 100m was won by 19-year-old Lena Noreses of Golden Cheetah Athletics Club.

Noreses, who is also captain of the Namibian Under 20 women’s soccer team, came first in a time of 12,5 seconds, followed by Desiree Kandovazu of Namib Lion (12,6) and Corlia Kruger of WHS (12,8).

The 20-year-old Kandovazu also impressed in the women’s 400m to win the race in 59,3 seconds, with Leandri van der Walt of WHS second in 60,4 and Noreses third in 61,0 seconds.

Another young athlete who did well was the 16-year-old Frederik Zyl of Windhoek Gymnasium. He won the men’s long jump with a distance of 6,00 metres, while he won his 400m heat in 52,5 seconds.

Overall however, Zyl could only finish sixth in the 400m, with national champion Ernst Narib of Golden Cheetah winning in 47,8, followed by Daniel Nghipandulwa of Namibian Police (48,4) and Johnson Tjenda of Namib Lion (49,2).

In other events, Nghipandulwa won the men’s 1 500m in 4:24,40, FC Pieterse won the men’s hurdles in 15,8 seconds, and Pieter Jan Swanepoel of Welwitchia 77 won the men’s shot put with a distance of 14,44m.

Claudia Moses of Welwitchia 77 won the women’s 1 500m in 4:52,6; Corlia Kruger of WHS won the women’s hurdles in 15,7; Kristien Kruger of WHS won the women’s long jump with a distance of 5,30m and Lawren Pringle of WHS won the women’s javelin with a distance of 32,36m.

WHS was the overall winner of the competition with 97 points, followed by Golden Cheetah (64,50) and Namib Lion (56).

The next event on the athletics calendar is the second leg of the Bank Windhoek Grand Prix which takes place in Windhoek next Saturday, 18 January.