Ishitile wins gold for Namibia at AUSC

Ishitile wins gold for Namibia at AUSC Namibia''s T11 athlete Lahja Ishitile won two gold medals at the 2016 African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region Five Under-20 Youth Games in Luanda, Angola.

Ishitile and her guide, David Ndailenga, won the T11, 100m sprint with a time of 13.13 seconds and T11 400m.

Sinelethu Nyanda of South Africa finished second while Beatrice Chimanikire of Zimbabwe finished third.

Ishitile''s medal was the third for Namibia at the games.

Also on Monday, Marungu Christopher won Namibia''s fourth medal, which was silver in the men''s T12, 100m. He finished behind Gasolina Orlando of Mozambique.

Sandro Diergaardt and Anjone Swanepoel won Namibia''s first medals at the AUSC Region Five Under-20 Youth Games. They won two bronze medals on Sunday in discus and long jump.

Namibia is competing in football (women), basketball (men), track and field, boxing, netball, swimming and tennis.

Meanwhile, the netball team were on Monday thrashed 19-54 by Botswana in their third game at the Games.

Botswana was fast and dominant from the beginning, which had the Namibians make errors their opponents capitalised on throughout the game.

In the first quarter, the Namibian players were already trailing 04-13. Botswana extended their lead in the second quarter to 11-27.

Namibia came out fighting in the third quarter but their efforts were in vain, as Botswana were cruising with a score of 15-40 points.

Botswana continued dominating in the fourth quarter as they made the Namibian girls'' dream of catching up impossible, when they scored 14 points to give them the 19-54 win.

Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa are competing in the netball category.

Speaking to Nampa after the game, Coach Sunette Burden said she was proud of her players'' fighting spirit, adding that they learn something every time they step on to the netball court, as they are not used to playing at this level.

“Losing two games in a row is a bit demotivating but the girls did their part… I hope going forward we can compete more at such competitions for the girls to gain more experience.”

Burden said the team is looking forward to play against South Africa in their last game of the group stages.

Namibia is currently fourth in the group after winning their opening game against Lesotho 34-14 and losing their second game, against Zimbabwe, 24-32.

Their game against South Africa is on Thursday at 16h30, Namibian time.

NAMPA