NAMIBIA’s athletes and supporting staff for the Tokyo Olympic Games were announced at the National Olympic Committee’s headquarters yesterday.
Namibia will be represented by 11 athletes and 17 supporting staff members consisting of coaches, managers, medical staff, and NNOC and government officials.
In athletics, the young sprinting sensations Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi will compete in the women’s 200m, and will be accompanied by their coach and manager Henk Botha, while marathon athletes Helalia Johannes and Rainhold Tomas will be accompanied by their coach Robert Kaxuxuena.
In boxing, Jonas Junias Jonas will compete in the 63kg category and will be accompanied by his coach and manager Albertus Tsamaseb.
Dan Craven and Vera Adrian will compete in road cycling and will be accompanied by their manager/coach Axel Theissen and mechanic Martin Nghilifavali, while Alex Miller and Michelle Vorster will compete in the mountain bike cross country event, with Hans du Toit as their manager/coach, and Ermin van Wyk as the mechanic.
Maike Diekmann will represent Namibia in the women’s singles sculls event, and will be accompanied by her manager/coach Grant Dodds, while Phillip Seidler will compete in the 10km marathon swimming event and will be accompanied by his coach and manager Nadja Seidler.
Dawie Augustyn is the Chef de Mission, while the medical and Covid liaison team consists of Dr David Weber and physiotherapist Anna Mart Kruger.
The NNOC will be represented by president Abner Xoagub and secretary general Joan Smit, while the team attache is Simataa Matali, the second secretary in the Namibian embassy in Tokyo.
The executive director of the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service, Audrin Mathe, and the Namibia Sport Commission vice chairperson Alna Similo will also accompany the team.
Xoagub said he was very positive about the team’s chances of success in Tokyo.
“We are very positive about the team that has been selected. They have a lot of potential, some of the athletes will be appearing for the first time at the Games, so we need to really motivate and encourage them,” he said.
“I have been on the Olympic committee for quite a while and I think this is the most probable time that we will manage to get a gold medal, without putting any pressure on the athletes, but I think the potential is great. Due to the prevailing pandemic we could not get our athletes to prepare as we would have liked to, but we are positive that we’ll come back with medals,” he added.
Chef de Mission Dawie Augustyn said that boxer Jonas Junias Jonas had remained in Namibia after plans to train in Russia were abandoned.
“Jonas is still in Namibia, it was impossible with the Covid regulations to get him to any training camp. The only training camp available was in Russia, but they decided it’s not a good idea to go and train there, because of the temperature difference with Tokyo,” he said.
“Maike Diekmann was in Sweden and she’s flying to Tokyo tomorrow where she will do her pre-Games training camp up till the 19th, when she moves to the athletes village,” he added.
“Phillip Seidler was going to go and prepare in Portugal, but he contracted Covid when he came back from his qualification event in Portugal,” he said.
When contacted later, Seidler said that he was in good spirits.
Ï sadly got Covid symptoms last Wednesday, but luckily it only lasted till Saturday evening. I’m 100 percent fine again, but I have to take it easy this week,” he said.
Ï started swimming slowly today and am building it up. I have a great team helping me at the moment with post-Covid, so that I can train fully next week again,” he said.