BLOEMFONTEIN – Namibian athletes with disabilities continued with their dominance of the South African Disability Sport Champions after winning 17 medals on the opening day of the championships.
The South Africa Sport Association for Physically Disabled and Visually Impaired (SASAPD) national championships are currently underway in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
The championships, which started on Monday, end on Wednesday.
On the opening day of the championships, Team Namibia won nine gold, five silver and three bronze medals.
The first medal for Namibia was a gold medal won by Lahja Ishitile who is visually impaired after winning the T11, 200 metre (m) sprint.
Ishitile also improved on her qualifying time for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro from B to A standard with the time of 28.13 seconds.
Other athletes who won gold in sprint on the day are Albertina Johannes in the T46, 200m; Johanna Benson in the T37 200m; Elias Ndimulunde in T46 200m men; Johannes Nambala in T13 200m; and Ananias Shikongo in the T11, 200m.
Abraham Hafenanye and Eliakim Aihuki also won gold in the 1 500m races; Hafenanye won a gold medal in the T13 category after setting up a new South African record of four minutes, 42.84 seconds (04.42.84) while Aihuki won the gold medal in the T12 category.
Gideon Ndaluka in the F56 shot-put category won another gold medal on the field events.
The silver medals were won by Kennedy Tiheyo in the F46 shot-put; Rosa Mandjoro in the T12 200m sprint; Twegathetwa Mushila in the T13 200m men sprint; Martin Aloisius in the T12 200m sprint; and Erasmus Anghuwo in the T37 200m men sprint.
Remo Eichab in the T37 200m, Ringo Goraseb in the T46 200m and Zibiso Mikasa in the T42 200m sprints all won bronze medals.
Speaking to Nampa after the race Ishitile said she was happy to improve on her time and is looking forward to winning more medals in South Africa.
A group of 35 Namibian athletes with disabilities are in Bloemfontein, South Africa. – Nampa
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