Category: Games

Namibia’s T11 sprinter, Lahja Ishitile (guide by Sem Shimanda) reached the semi-finals of the women’s T11 200 metres (m) after finishing second in her 200m heat on Saturday morning at the 2023 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Para Athletics Championships currently underway in Paris, France.

Ishitile and Shimanda ran a seasonal best time of 25.92 seconds to finish second in heat four, behind Brazilian sprinter Thalita Simplico and her guide Felipe Veloso, who won that heat with a time of 25.71 seconds.

The fastest time from the five heats held on the day was clocked by Cuiqing Liu of China and her guide Shengming Chen. They clocked 25.63 seconds to book themselves a spot in the semi-finals that will be held Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, T12 female sprinter Lahja Ipinge and guide Paulus Filippus did not progress to the final of the 100m after finishing last in her heat with a time of 13.22 seconds. The world record holder, defending champion Omara Durand of Cuba and guide Yuniol Kindelan won that heat with a seasonal best of 11.73 seconds.

Only the winners of the two heats and the fastest losing times advance to the final that will be held on Saturday evening.

Other Namibians also expected to compete on Saturday evening are T11 male sprinter Ananias Shikongo, who will compete in the 100m final, and T13 sprinter Johannes Nambala who will also compete in the 400m final.

Over 1 300 athletes from 107 nations are competing for 168 medals, and after eight days of competition, Namibia has won one medal – a silver in the T11 400m by Lahja Ishitile.

The major international multi-sport event involves athletes with a range of disabilities and is governed by the IPC.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

T11 paralympic sprinters Ananias Shikongo (guided by Even Tjiuiju) and T13 athlete Johannes Nambala progressed to the final of the men’s 100 metres (m) and 400m respectively, after finishing second in their respective semi-finals at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) 2023 World Para Athletics Championships currently underway in Paris, France.

The semi-finals of the T11 100m and T13 400m were held on Friday evening at the Charlety Stadium, where over 1 300 athletes from 107 nations are competing for 168 medals.

First on the track was Nambala, who ran a seasonal best of 48.92 seconds to finish second behind Japanese sprinter Ryota Fukunaga, who ran an Asian record of 47.79 seconds.

Shikongo, who was the second T11 athlete to compete in the 100m semi-finals, also ran a seasonal best of 11.20 seconds but finished behind Greece’s world record holder, Athanasios Ghavelas, who set up a new championship record of 10.93 seconds.

His world record time is 10.82 seconds which he set in 2021 at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games that were held in Japan.

Another Namibian athlete that made the semi-finals of their events on Friday night was Lahja Ipinge, guided by Paulus Filippus, who ran a personal best of 12.91 seconds in the T12 100m to reach the semi-finals that will be held on Saturday morning.

Cuban sprinter and world record holder, Omara Durand, won the T12 100m heat with a seasonal best of 11.78 seconds.

Meanwhile, T11 sprinter Chris Kinda and guide Riwaldo Goagoseb failed to progress to the final of the T11 100m after finishing fourth in their race with a time of 11.46 seconds.

Only the winner of the T11 100m heats, as well as one of the fastest times from the three heats, advance to the final

After seven days of competition, Namibia has one medal. A silver that was won by Lahja Ishitile and guide Sem Shimanda in the T11 400m race.

The major international multi-sport event involves athletes with a range of disabilities and is governed by the International Paralympic Committee.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

T11 male paralympic sprinters Chris Kinda (guided by Riwaldo Goagoseb) and Ananias Shikongo (guided by Even Tjiuiju) progressed to the semi-finals of the men’s T11 100 metres (m) after finishing second in their heats at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) 2023 World Para Athletics Championships underway in Paris, France.

The T11 100m heats were held on Friday morning at the Charlety Stadium, where over 1 300 athletes from 107 nations are competing for 168 medals.

On Friday morning, Shikongo and Tjiuiju ran a seasonal best of 11.36 seconds to finish second in a photo finish behind Germany’s Marcel Boettger and his guide Alexander Kosenkow, who won that heat with the same time.

Meanwhile, Shikongo’s teammates Kinda and Goagoseb also finished second in their heat with a time of 11.76 seconds to see both runners progressing to the semi-finals.

Alfredo Bernardo, another T11 athlete, and his guide Hatago Murere, failed to reach the next round of the competition after finishing last in their heat with a time of 12.14 seconds.

Only the heat winner and the fastest seven runner-ups from the five heats progressed to the semi-finals slated for 20h35 Friday evening.

Another Namibian expected to compete on Friday evening is T12 female sprinter Lahja Ipinge and her guide Paulus Filippus, who will compete in the 100m heat, while T13 male sprinter Johannes Nambala will compete in the 400m heat.

The major international multi-sport event involves athletes with a range of disabilities and is governed by the International Paralympic Committee.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

The national senior women’s football team, the “Brave Gladiators”, will have a two-goal advantage on Tuesday to their return leg of the 2024 Women’s Olympic Games qualifier against Equatorial Guinea.

The Brave Gladiators outclass their opponents 2-0 in the first leg of their Olympic qualifiers at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Thursday.

The 2024 Women’s Olympic Games qualifiers are being used to select two teams that will represent the continent in Paris, France in 2024. The winner of the first-round ties will advance to the second round, where they will face Morocco in October this year.

In their opening match of the qualifiers on Thursday, the gladiators put up an outstanding performance, which saw their talisman, Zenatha Coleman, opening the score in the 34th minute to take the game to the half-time break with a 1-0 lead.

In the second half, Coleman’s brilliant play once again saw her creating an assist for Ivone Kooper, who double the score in the 52nd minute to put the Namibian outfit at an advantage ahead of their return leg in Malabo.

In an interview after the match, gladiators’ head coach, Paulus Shipanga, said playing against a team that is better than them is always a challenge but patience and dedication got them through.

“I am proud of the girls the way they played. I would have liked more goals but we need to be thankful for the ones we scored and played against players that are bigger than us in physique. You are not able to dominate them physically therefore we opted for speed which won us the game,” he said.

He added that his long-term goal is to build something for the next two or three years but with him just being an interim coach that would be difficult to execute but he will do his best to give each player a playing opportunity.

The return leg of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games qualifiers is slated for Malabo Stadium in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea on 18 July 2023.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

Namibia’s T44 sprinter, Denzel Namene and T13 sprinter Johannes Nambala on Tuesday missed out on silverware after finishing fifth and sixth in their respective events at the 2023 Paris World Para Athletics Championships underway in France.

The 2023 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Para Athletics Championships which runs from 08 to 17 July, has over 1 300 athletes from 107 nations competing for 168 medals.

On Tuesday night, Namene came fifth in the final of the 100m with a time of 12.45 seconds, while Nambala ran a seasonal best of 11.05 seconds, which was not good enough for a medal as he crossed the line sixth.

T13 100m world record holder, Ageze Salum Kashafali of Norway, won the gold with a championship record of 10.45 seconds.

Meanwhile, Namibian T12 sprinter, Lahja Ipinge, who made her debut at the world athletics championships, was disqualified in the 400m heats for a false start and Namibia’s T11 400m silver medallist Lahja Ishitile also failed to progress to the final of the 100m after finishing second in the semi-finals.

Only the winners of the T11 100m heats and one of the fastest times from the three heats qualified for the final.

On Wednesday morning, T47 athlete Bradley Murere missed out on a medal in the long jump event after finishing 15th with a season-best of 5.62m. Robiel Sol Cervantes of Cuba won the gold with a championship record throw of 7.63m.

Still on Wednesday, T37 sprinter Petrus Karuli, who has thus far found the going tough at the championships, had a change in fortunes as he reached the final of the 400m after finishing second in his heat. Karuli clocked a time of 56.97 seconds, while the heat winner Yaroslav Okapinskyi of Ukraine clocked 54.89 seconds.

After six days of competition, Namibia has one silver medal.

In the previous edition of the IPC World Para Athletics Championships held in 2019 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Team Namibia won two medals which were gold and bronze, both from Johannes Nambala in the 400m and 100m sprints.

The major international multi-sport event involves athletes with a range of disabilities and is governed by the International Paralympics Committee.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

Namibian athletes with a disability found the going tough on day three of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) 2023 World Para Athletics Championships underway in Paris, France.

Over 1 300 athletes from 107 nations are competing for 168 medals and qualification slots for the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, a major international multi-sport event that involves athletes with a range of disabilities and is governed by the IPC.

On Tuesday morning, T13 sprinter Johannes Nambala qualified for the final of the 100 metres (m) after finishing fourth in his heat with a time of 11.20 seconds.

Norwegian athlete and world record holder Salum Ageze Kashafali ran the fastest time from all the heats clocking 10.74 seconds while Algerian sprinter Skander Athmani who won the first heat clocked the second fastest time of 10.85 seconds to set up an exciting final on Wednesday, 12 July at 19h20.

Meanwhile, T11 male sprinters Chris Kinda and his guide Riwaldo Goagoseb as well as Ananias Shikongo and his guide Sem Shimanda, missed out on an opportunity to compete for silverware in the T11 400m after finishing third and fourth in their respective heats.

Shikongo and his guide finished third in their heat with a time of 52.02 seconds while Gerard Descarrega of Spain and his guide Guillermo Gil Rojo ran a seasonal best of 50.97 seconds to win that heat. Their time was the fastest of all the two heats that were held on the day.

In the second heat, Kinda and his guide finished last with a time of 52.33 seconds as they found it hard to outclass home favourites Timothee Adolphe and his guide Jeffrey Lami as well as Gauthier Makunda and his guide Lucas Mathonat who finished first and second respectively to book themselves spots in the final.

Only the heat winner and the two fastest losers from both heats progressed to the final slated for Wednesday evening at the Charlety Stadium in Paris, France.

Namibia’s T11 female sprinter Lahja Ishitile and her guide Sem Shimanda reached the final of the women’s T11 400 metres (m) race on Monday night after once again setting a new African record and will be in contention for a podium place on Tuesday evening.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency