Namibia National Olympic Committee (NNOC) Secretary-General, Joan Smit said there is still ample time for athletes to qualify for the Commonwealth Games set for Birmingham, England during the months of July and August this year.
The Commonwealth Games are international multi-sport events involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations.
Smit in a recent interview with Nampa said Namibia has been allocated 25 slots for able-bodied athletes and eight for Paralympics and athletes have until 05 June to qualify for the Games.
“We have open allocations which means the qualifying criteria were not set. The NNOC, therefore selected a committee to set up qualification criteria which were communicated to the federations and these criteria are benchmarked to those of World Athletics,” she said.
Smit added that due to the Covid-19 pandemic there are not a lot of qualifying events in Africa and therefore athletes need to be sent to Europe.
“With lack of funds, we are unable to send athletes to compete at international events but Namibian athletes are hungry to compete and the NNOC is hoping to send athletes and boxers to Botswana to try and qualify for the Commonwealth Games at the end of this month (April),” she said.
The secretary-general also echoed that based on the stage that was set after the 2020 Tokyo, Olympic Games athletes have set their sight on qualifying for major competitions.
“At the moment we are having very good cyclists and for the first time, we registered a triathlon team which is a mixed team that will see athletes crossing over between triathlon and cycling,” said Smit who added that Namibian swimmers have been busy throughout the year but boxers need more international competitions.
NNOC President Abner Xoagub also told this agency that there are no team sports that have qualified for the Commonwealth Games.
“We have male and female marathon athletes that qualified, we also have two athletes who qualified for the 100 metres (m) and 200m sprints as well as the 4x100m relay team,” he said.
He added that the final team for the Games will be announced towards the end of June.
“Namibia’s goal at this competition is to compete and end up on podium positions not just to participate,” Xoagub said.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
