Secretary general of the Namibia National Olympic Committee (NNOC) Joan Smit said Namibians should always be hopeful of their athletes winning silverware at major competitions.

In an interview with Nampa on Tuesday, Smit said despite financial constraints and athletes not being given adequate time to prepare, she is hopeful that the current crop of Namibian athletes has the potential to do well.

“We have not yet received funds from the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service thus far despite having meetings with the minister and executive director. But for us it’s all about the athletes so we are running on Olympic solidarity funding from other programmes to make it a reality for our athletes,” said Smit, adding that athletes going to the Olympic Games will represent the country and not NNOC.

The SG added that despite all the obstacles faced by athletes, they are determined as well as physically and mentally prepared.

“We’re busy setting up the last training camps for our athletes before they depart for the Olympics. We have athletes in Europe and we are planning to send Junias Jonas to the USA while Helalia (Johannes) will be competing in South Africa this coming weekend in her last preparation event and Alex (Miller) is expected to come back home for high-altitude training by the end of June,” Smit said.

She said Namibian athletes have been doing well in their preparation therefore as an organisation they will always be hopeful when it comes to them winning medals.

“Helalia is part of the top 10 ranked long-distance runners in the world, Jonas is an Africa champion in his category while Beatrice Masilingi and Christine Mboma are running world class times in 200 metre (m) and 400m, so it will be wrong if we are not hopeful of winning medals at this championship,” Smit said.

Meanwhile, Jonas told Nampa on Tuesday he is waiting for the NNOC to tell him when he will depart for the United States of America.

“There is always pressure to win medals at competitions but mentally I am prepared so I will not put myself under any pressure to win as I prepare for the Olympics,” said Jonas.

The first group of Namibian athletes will depart for Japan on 16 July 2021 as athletes are expected to arrive in Japan five days before their competition at the 2021 Olympic Games that starts on 23 July and ends on 08 August.

Source: Namibia Press Agency