Team Namibia won 46 medals

A group of 21 Namibian athletes with disabilities participated in the South Africa Sport Association for the Physically Disabled and Visually Impaired (SASAPD) national championships that took place between 18 to 21 March at the Coetzenburg athletics stadium in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
The South African Toyota Disability Sport Championships was used by Namibian athletes who competed in athletics (track and field) and swimming as a qualifier for the 2019 International Paralympic Committee Athletics World Champion-ships set for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates between 7 and 15 November this year.
Team Namibia won 32 gold, 11 silver and three bronze medals. On the opening day of the championships, Team Namibia won two medals in swimming, while on the second day they won 13 medals, comprising of 11 gold and two bronze.
The third day saw Namibian continue with their winning ways as they added five gold, six silver and one bronze medal to their tally. The team col-lected 19 more medals, of which 14 were gold and five silver on the last day of the championships.
The gold medals winner was by elite athletes Ananias Shikongo, Johannes Nambala, Mateus Angula, Lahja Ishitile and Reginald Benade with upcoming athletes Silvia Shivolo, Bradley Murere, Dian Jensen, Christopher Marungu, Petrus Karuli, and Alfredo ‘The Bullet’ Bernado also contri-buted to the winning of the gold medals.
The coach and Secretary-General of the Namibia Paralympic Committee Michael Hamukwaya, said with enough support, this group of athletes can do more and that the young athletes are hungry to perform for their country.
“This can only happen if we get enough support. Our focus at the moment is the IPC athletics world championships later this year, where we want to defend the medals we won in London in 2017” Hamukwaya said.
He added that for these athletes to be the best they need to be in a training camp for at least two to three months, so they perfect all the techniques.
“If the athletes do not get the needed support from government, they will end up just participating at events instead of competing.
Namibian Paralympics athletes always do well at competitions but it’s about time that the Government as well as the Private Corporate world starts investing more in these athletes,” Hamukwaya added.