Namibia Paralympic Committee (NPC) secretary general Michael Hamukwaya has said the NPC is planning to take five sports codes to the upcoming Toyota South African Sports Association for Physically Disabled (SASAPD) championships.
The annual SASAPD National Championships brings together athletes from nine South African Provinces and other Southern African countries to compete against their peers.
This year’s championships are scheduled for Cape Town, South Africa from 17 to 23 March 2023 where Team Namibia plans to compete in Para Athletics, Para Powerlifting, Boccia, Para-Cycling, and Goalball.
Hamukwaya in an interview with Nampa on Tuesday said they have decided to take five sports codes as part of their goal is to have as many codes representing the country at the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games.
“Our aim is to develop para sports in Namibia. In the past, we focused mainly on para-athletics. The time is now to start giving opportunities to athletes living with a disability to take up codes that were previously neglected,” he said.
The secretary-general further said with the different codes, they will have a big delegation of athletes which is costly.
“We have already selected athletes that are supposed to represent Namibia at the SASAPD in Cape Town. Athletes have been going through their paces and are ready to compete,” he said.
He added that the SASAPD will be used as a springboard for the NPC to see which athletes to include in the national team for the upcoming International Paralympic Committee World Para Athletics Championships and the first-ever 2023 African Para Games in Accra.
At last year’s event held in Johannesburg, South Africa, Namibian athletes with disabilities won 30 medals after three days of the competition. They bagged 20 gold, three silver and seven bronze medals.
Other countries that competed at the 2022 SASAPD National Championships are Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Botswana, as well as nine South African provinces.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
