Junior athletes to receive AN’s attentionJunior athletes to receive AN''s attention Athletics Namibia''s new executive committee has big plans for the athletes, mainly focusing on the youth. Newcomer to the Athletics Namibia executive committee, junior chairperson Edwardo Kapewasha, is committed to transformation in athletics. Speaking to Namibian Sun yesterday, Kapewasha, who was elected to that position at the weekend, said he would love to see junior athletes transform into seniors.
“I will be chairing at the junior level and during my term I would love to see a transformation of junior athletes to senior athletes taking place and see these athletes excelling at national and international competitions,” he said.
He said because most junior athletes are from the northern regions, he would like to decentralise some of the programmes to the regions.
“I would love these kids to be involved as much as possible, to be exposed and at least to get better results as far as international levels are concerned,” he said.
Although it is the first time he is serving in the AN leadership, he has been involved with junior athletes in the northern regions and is looking forward to working with the team.
“I would like to see us take Athletics Namibia to a level that people feel that there is something happening in the world of athletics and then strengthen the relationship between Namibia National Olympics Committee (NNOC), Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) and the Directorate of Sports.”
Meanwhile, the newly elected NA president, Erwin Naimwaka, has set his eyes on getting more youth participation in athletics at international events. Naimwaka was elected as NA president during its annual general meeting on Saturday, replacing Alna Similo who will be one of the vice-presidents.
He mentioned that he wants to focus mainly on youth development during his tenure. “I want us to focus on the youth and make sure that we have full representation at international level,” he said. He said it is important that AN produces athletes that the country wants to see exceling and that can only be done with development programmes in place.
He further said that he wants to see all regions having functional athletics structures that aim at getting the youth into athletics.
Naimwaka also wants to get the private sector involved in athletics, and according to him AN will redefine its activities to attract sponsors.
“We want to entice the private sector to support our activities, so we are firstly going to redefine our activities and make sure that they are products that can attract sponsors,” he said.
He said he was looking forward to working with the new AN leaders.
“I am really looking forward to working with everybody and really want us to move away from the bickering that sometimes goes on in federations and takes the leadership away from their main objectives,” he said. He appealed to the business community to support Athletics Namibia in its activities.
KAINO NGHITONGO