Athletics to resume activities by September

NAMPA



Erwin Naimhwaka, president of Athletics Namibia (AN), says they are hard at work to see the sport of athletics back to its competitive nature by September.

This year AN hosted three of its four Grand Prix events before the national state of emergency was declared on 16 March due to Covid-19, which in the end led to the cancellation of all their planned athletics activities for the year.

Naimhwaka says despite the challenges AN has revised their calendar which will run their athletic season into 2021.

“What we have done is to allow people to get enough time to train, especially for those doing track and field. Our goal now is to see athletics resuming by September 2020 and the revised calendar will be shared with our members soon,” he said.

Naimhwaka added that they have thus far engaged the sports commission to start disinfecting the different venues, especially those belonging to the government.

“Come next week everything will be ready in terms of athletes having access to the fields for training,” he said.

The AN president also said that as a federation they have always taken a broader view on things and will try their level best to accord athletes the opportunities to qualify for major tournaments.

“We will try to facilitate for our athletes to qualify for the 2021 Olympic Games but putting in mind the availability of resources,” said Naimhwaka who added that despite the additional opportunities it is not guaranteed that athletes will make the qualifying times if they still have challenges like a lack of financial assistance.