Four junior athletes representing three different athletic clubs reached the qualifying standard for the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) championships scheduled to take place in Lusaka, Zambia later this month.
The African Junior Athletics Championships is a biennial continental athletics event for junior athletes from African nations. The championships are organised by CAA and see athletes aged 19 or under competing for silverware.
This year’s combined Under 18-20 (U18-20) championship will be held in Lusaka from 29 April to 03 May.
The recently held Khomas Athletics Regional Championships junior athletes representing NUST Welwitschias Athletics Club, Tsaraxa-Aibes Athletics Club and Acacia Athletics Club reached the track and field qualifying standards for the junior CAA Championships.
Wilberd Hamukonda (NUST Welwitschias) competed in the U20 category and ran a time of 21.57 seconds in the 200 metre (m), and 10.84 seconds in the 100m. Tersuan Haack (Tsaraxa-Aibes Athletics Club) jumped a distance of 14.37m in the triple jump, while his teammate Katroli Josia jumped 2.00m in the high jump.
Acacia Athletics Club athlete, Julie-Ann Schuster was the only female that made the qualifying standards in the triple jump with a distance of 10.42m.
Lot Ndamanomhata, Media Liaison and Publicity Officer at Athletics Namibia told Nampa on Tuesday that Namibia intends to send a team to compete at the CAA combined Under 18-20 (U18-20) championships in Lusaka, Zambia, but they are still busy with the selection of the team which will be announced in due course once finalised.
In a recent interview with Nampa, athletics coach and the Khomas Region’s Athletics Championships organiser, Letu Hamhola, said the young athletes who reached CAA junior championships qualifying times have great potential.
“Namibia doesn’t have junior championships and the Khomas Athletics Regional Championships saw four junior athletes reaching the CAA qualifying standard, which is nice to see as we are aiming to grow athletics in the country,” he said.
Hamhola also called on schools and young athletes living in the Khomas Region to start taking part in these championships to keep busy throughout the athletics season.
“We want young athletes to be kept busy throughout the athletic season, even when school athletics have ended so that they don’t disappear in the cracks when the season ends,” said Hamhola.
Source: The Namibia Press Agency
