Team Namibia wins four medals at IPC Berlin Grand Prix

BERLIN, 01 JUL – Namibian athletes won four medals on the opening day of the 2018 world International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Berlin Grand Prix held at the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark, on Saturday.
Team Namibia won one gold, two silvers and a bronze at the two-day championship.
Johannes Nambala won gold in the T13 category 400 metre sprint with a time of 49.73 seconds and a silver in the 100m in a time of 11.12 seconds.
Ananias Shikongo won the other silver in the T11 400m event with a time of 51.96 seconds. The gold was won by Daniel Silva from Brazil who clocked 51.47 second.
Bradley Murere who made his debut at the grand prix won a bronze medal for Namibia in the 100m T46 category with a time of 11.98 seconds.
The team’s coach and manager Michael Hamukwaya told Nampa after day one of the event that he was happy with the athletes’ performances and was looking forward to their last events at the competition on Sunday.
“We brought six young athletes to this grand prix with the aim of growing them for future competitions and I am really happy that they worked hard on the opening day despite most of them not winning medals as this is their first time they are competing at such a huge event,” he said.
Hamukwaya added that he was happy with the young athletes who set up their personal best times, an indication that the future is bright for Para-sports in the country.
“All these young athletes ran their personal best today (Saturday). This is a good sign for the sport as all of them are working hard to create names for themselves in the sport very soon,” said Hamukwaya.
A total of 41 countries competed at the two-day championships.
In 2016, team Namibia won 14 medals at the same championships, nine of which were gold, three silver and two bronze.
(NAMPA)