QSB athletics clinic kicks off in style 

THE 32nd Crystal Gold Quinton Steele Botes Athletics Coaching and Training Clinic kicked off in style yesterday when more than 200 young athletes were taken through their paces by some acclaimed international coaches. 

They include top South African coaches like Jonathan Greyvenstein and Charlie Strohmenger, who have both been participants for many years and one of Africa’s top pole vaulting coaches Louis Nienaber, who has joined for the first time. 

Namibian long jump and triple jump coach Roger Haitengi, who is now a top coach at the University of Johannesburg, was also back to share his expertise with some of Namibia’s up and coming young athletes. 

High jump coach Greyvenstein said it was great to be back in Namibia. 

“It’s amazing that this course has been running so long, you will not find that in South Africa. It’s a wonderful thing to be part of and personally I am here for the greater good of Namibian athletes, especially the high jumpers. It’s my seventh year now that I’ve been coming to this and it’s just getting bigger and better,” he said. 

“It’s fantastic to know that you guys are supporting it because then the talent will grow which will make Namibia proud at the end of the day,” he added. 

Greyvenstein said it was important to start coaching at a young age. 

“For us as coaches it’s important to get these athletes at a young age, to get them into the right method of jumping. Especially high jump, if you get hurt with that bar once, you will never come back again, so we start with the basics, from the back, just doing a crab stand and going into a backflip,” he said.

“At school they usually just let them stand one side and they just say jump, and then these guys think they can do it, but when they get to that bar they don’t know what to do. And then they stop or they jump and they hurt themselves or they feel stupid and they never return to high jump. So for me as a coach it’s important that the athletes start with the correct technique because if you do it wrong, you will never get it right again,” he added. 

“For me it’s also important to coach the coaches, because the more coaches there are, the more we can help the athletes. Because they are here and they are hungry. Every year Leonie (van Rensburg) calls us and you cannot say no because it’s a privilege to be a part of this,” he said.

Top pole vaulting coach Nienaber, who has produced numerous South African and African champions, said it was as privilege to be part of the clinic.

“I feel privileged to be here and to be invited. It’s a dream of mine to get pole vaulting started in Namibia. I love Namibia and its people and I was once at a training camp in Swakopmund, but this is my first time at this camp in Windhoek. I’m very excited to be able to make a difference in the lives of the Namibian kids,” he said. 

“I think there are a lot of talented kids here, the flexibility and agility is there, so we must just develop them and stay close to the federation and the club and I’ll definitely do my best to develop the athletes here,” he said. 

Haitengi said it was important to plough back into the community. 

“For me this is where I started off  – at the age of 14 I was discovered and pushed through so this is where my career started and I just feel I have to give back. It’s exciting to see some other fellow athletes and just to give them some advice to get them to the highest level, so it’s always exciting to give back and plough back into the community,” he said. 

Haitengi still holds the Namibian triple jump record of 16,78m, but he said that one of his Namibian athletes, David Afrikaner, is now determined to break it. 

“We brought David over to UJ last year and he has now finished his first year studies. He told me last year during a training session that he’s going to break my record this year, so yes, he’s looking good, it’s a work in progress and we are building the fundamentals, so I’m hoping that I can take him to the next level,” he said.