Namibia Paralympic Committee (NPC) secretary general Michael Hamukwaya has said it was not an easy journey for the NPC to send its athletes to the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Marrakech, Morocco.

The 2022 Sixth International Para Athletics Meeting is underway in the city of Marrakech, with 41 countries competing for top honours from 15 to 17 September 2022 at the Marrakech Grand Stadium.
In an interview with Nampa on Thursday, Hamukwaya said para sports is growing and Namibia should not be left behind.

“I am excited to see our team made it to one of the two International Paralympic Committee Grand Prix held in Africa. Coming to this competition was a struggle due to financial difficulties, but credit should be given NamPower, who always comes on board to rescue the team,” he said.
Hamukwaya added that this championship is very important because it forms part of the athletes’ pathway to the World Athletics Championships and the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.
“We came with a big delegation of athletes and the budget we got from NamPower was enough to cater for our flight tickets and accommodation. We however still owe money for participation fees and athletes’ appearances, which still need to be paid as participation and classification fees are paid in Euros,” he said.

Hamukwaya noted that they took a big group of athletes to the event because many upcoming athletes need to be classified.

He also said out of the 11 athletes that needed to be classified, only David Shaningwa did not make the classification due to certain technicalities, but he will still be reviewed in the future.
The NPC secretary general stated that the goal of the federation is to have a big team for the World Para Athletics Championships and the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.
“At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games we travelled with three athletes and won two medals, at the 2016 Rio Paralympic games we had a team of nine athletes and won five medals, so it is important to have athletes competing at as many events as possible. It is also important to have different sport codes as we did in 2016 when we had swimming, powerlifting and athletics at the Rio Paralympic Games,” he said.

A team of 22 athletes six guides and three coaches, physiotherapists and media personnel travelled with the team for the Grand Prix.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency