Athletics Namibia (AN) has announced a 17-member team that will represent Namibia at the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Southern Region Senior Athletics Championships in Maputo, Mozambique on July 2-3, 2011.
The team is expected to start their training camp on 16 June under coaches Letu Hamhola and Icha Anderson.
Hamhola said that they were looking at making sure that most of the team qualifies for the All Africa Games.
"We selected the team with the hope that we get as many of them to qualify for the All Africa Games as possible because this will be their last chance to do that," Hamhola said.
The group includes Tjipekapora Herunga who will be running in the 200m, 400m and the relay.
Herunga recently set a new Namibian 400m record (46.62) during the South African Yellow Pages series.
Daniel Nghipandulwa who also set a new Namibian 800m record (1:46.62) at the South African Championships is also included in the team.
Herunga, Nghipandulwa and sprinter Globine Mayova (100m) are the only athletes to have qualified for the All Africa Games so far.
"As we are busy rebuilding the team, so we decided to select a team full of youngsters and we expect all of them to do well."
Included in the team are Merlyn Diamond (100, 200 and relay) and Dantago Gurirab (100, 200 and relay) who are based in Mauritius.
They are training at a High Performance Training Centre after they received bursaries from the International Olympic Council's development fund, Olympic Solidarity.
"We are preparing them thoroughly so that they do the best they can as we are looking at the championships as a dress rehearsal for the All Africa Games," Hamhola said.
The full team:
- Cornel Britz; 100 and 4x100
- Merilyn Diamond; 100, 200 and 4x100
- Globine Mayova; 4x100m and waitlist 100m, 200m
- Tjipekapora Herunga; 200m, 400m and 4x100m
- Jeanette Kamati; Long Jump and 4x100m
- Charlene Engelbrecht; Shot put and Discus
- Corlia Kruger; heptathlon
- Phillipus Paulus; 100m and 4x100m
- Jesse Uri-khob; 200m and 4x100m
- Dantago Gurirab; 100m, 200m and 4x100m
- Hitch Kaanjuka; 4x100m, waitlist 100m and 200m
- Kristof Shaanika; 1500m and 800m
- Daniel Nghipandulwa; 800m
- Hardus Maritz; 400m hurdlers
- Strydom van der Wath; Javelin
- Hans von Lieres; High Jump
- Gregory Areseb; Long Jump