Namibia’s two golden girls, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi will participate in the season-ending Diamond Golden League meeting scheduled to take place Thursday night in Zürich, Switzerland.

This was confirmed by their coach Henk Botha who said they are excited to be invited to participate in the 200m race.

“I am proud of the girls, especially Beatrice who qualified in Brussels the other day for the final despite running with flu. Christine already qualified before the race. They only invite eight athletes to the Diamond League Finals and two of them are Namibian,” Botha said.

He added that the two sprinters are in good spirits and have been preparing for the race in Italy before flying to Zürich for the competition.

Barring any withdrawals, the Namibians will face a strong field of athletes which include Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Dina Asher-Smith, the Tokyo Olympic 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson, Beth Dobbin, Mujinga Kambundji and Marie-Josée Ta Lou.

Meanwhile, their participation comes at the back of the announcement that the two athletes signed sponsorship deals with Nike (Mboma) and Adidas (Masilingi).

This means the athletes benefit from these companies by having some of their preparation and competition expenses covered.

Botha declined to disclose details of the deals saying the deals were private and confidential between the athletes and their sponsors.

The deal will see the two wearing Nike and Adidas apparel respectively during all their international competitions.

Masilingi and Mboma have been in scintillating form this year, winning several races, in the process setting world, season and personal best times, culminating with the duo winning several medals at the Junior World Championships recently held and the latter winning a silver medal at this year’s Olympic Games.

Mboma has run sub 22 seconds four times in the women’s 200m in 2021, losing only two out of the 10 races she participated in this year.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency