Landmark moment for Namibian sport reporting 0 HECTOR MAWONGANamibian Sun’s Kaino Nghitongo on Friday won the Sport Reporter of the Year award, which marked a great moment in a profession traditionally dominated by men.
The young reporter became the first woman to claim the award.
Veteran journalist Isack Hamata, who started out as a sport reporter and now heads the Namibia Press Agency (Nampa), agreed that Nghitongo’s achievement has the potential to change the perception that sport - and reporting on it - is a male domain.
“Kaino’s win is a huge hit for females in the industry,” he said, having earlier explained that while Namibia has had female sport reporters in the past, none managed to win an award.
“Namibia has had very few female sports journalists over the years. The ones I can remember are Natasha Wahengo, Nomvula Kondombolo, Rosa Mathias and Katrina Keys.
“None of them, even though they were quite exceptional in their own right, have ever won the award; not even when there used to be a stand-alone sports awards function in the early 1990s,” he said.
Nghitongo started out at Nampa and was later recruited by this paper to head its Sport Wrap section.
She joins a list of former winners of this award that includes current Namibian Sun editor Festus Nakatana.
Her win also comes on the back of a call by MTC’s Tim Ekandjo, who urged Namibian fans to root out the evils of discrimination based on colour, sex and tribe.
“What we should all do [is] fight injustice, fight racism, fight tribalism and fight sexism until we succeed, we should not give up fighting,” he said during his speech at the sport awards, which were held at Windhoek’s Country Club.