New year national athletics season kicks off in Swakop
The national athletics season kicked off over the past weekend with the first round of the Athletics Namibia Grand Prix Series which saw a large number of athletes converge in Swakopmund for the games.
The series is sponsored by the Pupkewitz Foundation.
The event covered all athletic codes for men and women for the top 10 places and for para-athletes for the top 5 places.
The rocket event of any athletics tournament, the 100 metre sprint was dominated by Ndawana Haitembu in a time of 11.94 seconds. In the 400 metre Elvis Gaseb took the honours in 47.29 seconds. Both athletes won cash prizes of N$4000 for their performance.
In the para-athletics categories, Roodly Gowaseb claimed victory in the 5000m clocking in at 14 minutes and 35.72 seconds, and Lahjia Iipinge claimed top honors in the 400m with atime of 63.72 seconds, also earning themselves N$4,000 in prize money.
The athletes’ performances were ranked utilizing the World Athletics Scoring points and the IPC Scores for the Para-athletics category.
A total of 215 athletes from 27 athletics clubs participated in this exhilarating Grand Prix. The participating clubs were:
1. Athletics Development Club (ADC) – Erongo;
2. Cheetah AC – Oshana;
3. Dome Athletics Academy (DAA) – Erongo;
4. Dream Team AC – Erongo;
5. Epupa Rapids AC – Omusati;
6. Golden Cheetah AC – Khomas;
7. Namib Lions AC – Khomas;
8. Namibia Correctional Services AC – Khomas;
9. NDF AC – Khomas;
10. NUST Welwitschia AC – Khomas;
11. Oholongo AC – Oshikoto;
12. Olupale AC – Oshikoto;
13. Omaruru AC – Erongo;
14. Ongwendiva Run Along AC – Oshana;
15. Oshakati AC – Oshana;
16. Oshikuku AC – Omusati;
17. Ouhongo AC – Omusati;
18. Outapi Rockets AC – Omusati;
19. Paradise AC – Erongo;
20. Quinton Steel Botes (QSB) AC – Khomas;
21. Rockets AC – Kavango East;
22. Sunshine AC – Oshana;
23. Swakop Namibia Athletes Club – Erongo;
24. Swakop Striders AC – Erongo;
25. Tsarax-Eibes AC – Hardap;
26. UNAM AC – Khomas; and
27. Windhoek Gymnasium AC – Khomas.
Athletics Namibia expressed its gratitude to the Pupkewitz Foundation for their invaluable partnership in bringing the Grand Prix Series to life.
The next installment in the series takes place on 10 February 2024 at the Independence Stadium in Windhoek.
