Team Namibia at the Olympics

Rudi Bowe

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics campaign kicked off on an unruffled note for Team Namibia, as road cyclists Vera Looser, Tristan de Lange and female mountain biker Michelle Vorster failed to finish their respective races while male mountain bike cross country cyclist Alex Miller finished in the 31st position in his race.

Maike Diekmann, the first rower to represent Namibia at the Olympic Games got Namibia’s campaign underway last Friday, 23 July in the women’s singles sculls race, where she finished third in a time of 07:56:37, which automatically qualifies her for the quarter finals during the opening heats.
On Saturday, 24 July 2021, Diekmann faced tough competition, but managed to row herself into the top-10 of the quarter finals as she finished fifth overall in a time of 8:21.69 and thus did not qualify for the semi-final but secured a semi-final C/D spot, featuring rankings between 13 and 24.
Maike Diekmann yesterday (Thursday 29) booked her place in today’s (Friday 30 July) Olympic C final, finishing in the top three of the C/D semi-final. The C/D final is not a medal race, it’s only for ranking.
Road Cyclist Vera Looser had a strong start as she led for nearly half in the women’s road cycling race last Sunday 25 July as she breaks away from the peloton around the Fuji International Speedway before dropping off the pace.
Looser however, could not maintain the relentless pace and started dropping back from the leading group after 41km, before being caught by the peloton 30km later.
Tristan de Lange, Namibian male Road Cyclist caught world attention after briefly leading the peloton in men’s road race as he ensured that the world took notice of Namibia after a stunning early breakaway, immediately after the start of the 137km race.
De Lange had an impressive first half of the race, managing to work himself up into the front pack but was eventually pulled off by the broom wagon with 57km remaining, after falling too far behind the leaders and failed to finish his race.
The Namibian Mountain bike cross country cyclist Alex Miller finished his race in a time of 01:34:26, 9:12min in the 31st position out of 38 cyclists that started the race.
Miller features a mass start and multiple laps, with the first rider to complete the required laps winning gold. However, riders whose time is 80% slower than that of the race leader’s first lap are eliminated.
Namibian female mountain biker Michelle Vorster was facing a very difficult race on a muddy course and was pulled out of the race in the third lap of the and could not manage to finish the women’s cross-country race.
Still to compete is the Jonas Junias Jonas, Beatrice Masilingi, Christine Mboma, Phillip Seidler, Helalia Johannes and Rainhold Tomas.
Namibian Boxer Jonas Junias Jonas the second seed for the competition, received a first round bye, will face a tough opponent in Harry Garside of Australia when he gets his Tokyo Olympics campaign underway on Saturday 31 July, for a place in the quarter final that will be on 3 August. The semi-finals will be on 6 August and the final on 8 August.
The Namibian speedsters Beatrice Masilingi and Christine Mboma will be in action on Monday 2 August in the qualifying heats and semi-finals in the 200 meters with the final set for the next day 3 August.
Namibian marathon swimmer, Phillip Seidler will be in action on Wednesday 5 August in the marathon swimming event with Helalia Johannes and Rainhold Tomas in action on 7 and 8 August respectively in the road marathons.
Photos: Facebook.

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