Namibian team for All Africa Games

NAMIBIA will be represented by 81 athletes from 12 sporting codes at the 12th edition of the All Africa Games which take place in Rabat, Morocco from 19 to 31 August.

The team was announced by the chief administrator of the Namibia Sport Commission, Fred Mwiya, yesterday, who said he believed that they would bring several medals back home.

“I believe we have some medallists in this group. Some of our athletes have excelled at continental level, while we have some very promising juniors in the group as well,” he said.

Mwiya added that the final group was whittled down from more than 110 athletes.

“We initially had a group of more than 110 athletes, but we needed to see where they qualified. The athletes mostly qualified through their respective confederations, but we also allocated quota places to some athletes,” he said.

The Namibian team will face a tough task to improve on their predecessors of four years ago, who competed at the All Africa Games in Congo Brazzaville.

That team won 14 medals in total which is the most that Namibia has won at the quadrennial games since Namibia’s first participation in 1991.

Most of Namibia’s medallists on that occasion, though, came from their para-athletes, who won half of their medals, including all five their gold medals. Athletes with disabilities, will however not be competing in Rabat, since the first African Games for athletes with disabilities will be staged in January next year.

Of Namibia’s 12 participating codes, athletics has the largest contingent of 34 athletes and officials.

Marathon runner Helalia Johannes, who won gold at last year’s Commonwealth Games and has been in great form this year, is Namibia’s best bet for a medal, but the young sprinting sensation Beatrice Masingili, who won two gold medals at the African Athletics Championships, is also a strong contender.

Only seven of Namibia’s athletes, however, reached the qualifying standards for the All Africa Games, with the rest receiving quota places so it’s unlikely that there will be many contenders for medals.

In boxing another Commonwealth Games gold medallist Jonas Junias Jonas will once again be a strong contender, while there are also some upcoming young boxers with a lot of potential, including Tryagain Ndevelo, who also competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Karate will be represented by eight members with Suzelle Pronk and Michelle Tjimuku among the medal contenders. Pronk won a silver medal at the recent African Beach Games, while Tjimuku won a bronze medal at the Africa Youth Games in Algeria last year.

In archery the youthful Quinn Reddig could be a contender after some great performances over the past year.

In July last year she won a gold medal at the Africa Youth Games in Algeria, and three months later she won a bronze medal at the Olympic Youth Games in Argentina.

Namibia’s beach volleyball team also excelled recently when they won a silver medal at the African Beach Games in Cape Verde, and could once again be amongst the contenders.

Namibia has also entered a strong cycling team including male and female road racing and mountain bike riders.

Namibia could challenge for medals in the team competitions, while riders like Dan Craven, Drikus Coetzee, Alex Miller, Tristan de Lange, Michelle Vorster and Vera Adrian could all be medal contenders in the individual categories.

Namibia will be represented by two swimmers in Xander Skinner and Kiah Borg, and especially Skinner might have a chance of winning a medal. He has been in great form this year, breaking the national 50m and 100m freestyle records while he is also currently competing at the Fina World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

The other codes that Namibia will compete in are shooting, tennis, chess and fencing.