T13 sprinter Johannes Nambala won Namibia’s second medal at the ongoing 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games in Japan on Thursday morning.

Nambala who qualified to the final of the T13 400 metre (m) after finishing second in his heat on Wednesday night, finished third in the final of the 400m and collected a bronze medal for Team Namibia which is their second at the competition.

Namibia’s first medal at the championships came on Sunday when Ananias Shikongo won a silver medal in the men’s T11 400m.

To claim the bronze on Thursday morning Nambala finished behind 2016 Paralympic Games defending champion Mohamed Amguoun of Morocco, who ran a seasonal best time of 47.70 seconds but finished second while Nambala ran a seasonal best of 48.76 seconds.

Skander Djamil Athmani of Algeria became the new T13 400m Paralympic champion after breaking Amguoun’s world record of 46.92 seconds with his sensational sprint of 46.70 seconds at the rainy Olympic Stadium.

Meanwhile Namibia’s Lahja Ishitile’s competition came to an end after she failed to progress to the semi-finals of the T11 200m. She finished last in heat three of her event on Thursday morning.

In an interview with Nampa after the race Nambala said he feels proud of himself and credit should be given to his coach Letu Hamhola for believing in him.

“The race was good as I came here to compete as a world champion. There are new guys coming up but as an athlete I will work on my flaws from now on and there will be no resting until the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games,” said Nambala who added that he is not scared of anyone because 400m is his race and he will come back stronger in 2024.

Namibia Paralympic Committee secretary general, Michael Hamukwaya told this agency that his hope is for Namibians to start appreciating the athletes’ achievements as well as celebrate them.

“We now have two medals from the competition, this shows that Para-athletes are strong and this is something that calls for celebration,” said Hamukwaya.

Namibia will have their last athlete in action on Thursday evening here, when Shikongo competes in the T11 100m final which will be at 12h10 Namibian time.

Team Namibia returned with five medals – one gold, two silver and two bronze from the 2016 Paralympic Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where nine athletes represented the country.

At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games the country is represented by three athletes in track and field events, who have so far managed to account for two medals – a silver and a bronze.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency