Henk Botha, coach of sprinting sensation Christine Mboma, says 2023 is a year that he plans to create a database of talented athletes that can be trained to one day represent Namibia internationally.

Botha told Nampa in a recent interview that plans are in order for him to tour northern Namibia so he can identify raw talent that can become future stars.

“I am going to be on the road from 04 to 07 February 2023 in northern Namibian. Towns that we envisage visiting are Omuthiya, Ondangwa and Oshakati. We are looking at having a pool of 100 raw-talent athletes,” he said.

He added that their goal is to have 20 elite athletes in their camp and 30 raw-talent, with the latter being trained in their respective towns or regions.

“If we get raw talent in this region, we will identify a coach who will work with them throughout. We will only bring these raw talent athletes to Windhoek if they are exceptionally good so that they can be put in a pool of the elites that we will be training,” Botha said.

The coach stated that the pool of 10 to 20 elite athletes will be exposed to international competitions.

“Namibia has a number of talented athletes but [they] are not exposed to international competitions. Our goal for this year is to have these athletes compete in major competitions around the world so that they understand the level of competition out there and come huge international competition times like the world athletics championships or the Olympics, they are in a position to qualify for those events and represent the country,” he said.

Botha also said that he is yet to decide on the dates that they will tour the northeast regions to identify more talent.

“When we are done with our northern scouting tour, we plan to visit the Kavango region. We will go as far as Divundu but those dates will be communicated soon,” he said, adding that the talent identification program for this year will only focus on the northern regions.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency