Top local runners prepare for London

Top local runners prepare for London As London gears up for the IAAF World Championships in August, five Namibian track and field athletes are honing their skills and resilience and working hard to balance work and athletics in preparation for the championships.

Athletics Namibia will send Helalia Johannes, Beata Naigambo, Lavinia Haitope, Reonard Nampala and Paulus Iyambo in hope to win medals for the country.

Haitope, whose speciality is the 42km marathon said her team wakes up at 05:30 every morning to run, “my coach has put a strict schedule which I am following. I train twice a day; in the morning and afternoon. We run the NamPower and Otjomuise road. My family is very supportive and that gives me the inspiration to run.”

She further said that winning a medal would be a great achievement but she is using the championship to better her time which currently stands at 2h: 40 min: 26sec. Naigambo also said training has been going well so far.

Haitope and Naigambo’s coach, Tobias Hiskia said the athletes so far have not had any injuries and a situation that is healthy. “We are training well despite the fact that support is lacking for the athletes.”

The biennial championships take place from August 4 to 13 and feature some of the best runners in the world.

The event will take place at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic and expected to be the biggest sporting event of the year.

The London Championships will be the 16th in the event’s 34-year history and the first IAAF World Championships were hosted in Helsinki in 1983.

The most recent Championships in Beijing, China, in August, 2015, saw 1 931 athletes participate from a record 207 national federations.

Kenya won the highest number of medals for the first time in its history, winning seven gold medals out of the 16 medals it took home, breaking USA’s 10 year record.

Limba Mupetami