Junior team off to African championship in Egypt
Gymnastics
The national junior gymnastics team left Namibia for Egypt yesterday to compete in the African Gymnastic Championship from 10 to 15 March.
The team, consisting of Mea-Nine Olivier, Joy-Lana Kaboy and D'Laine Olivier, will compete in the under 13, 11 and nine year age categories respectively. They are being accompanied by their head coach Sonja Olivier, who is also the president of the Namibia Gymnastics Federation, and judge Britt Adonis-Byl.
During their send-off ceremony yesterday, the team was accorded national sport colours and the sports code to guide their professional conduct when competing at national, regional, intercontinental and international championships.
Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) chief administrator Freddy Mwiya said it is good that the team is being accompanied by a judge, because sometimes when Namibian athletes compete in competitions, they do well on the field of play but this is not reflected in the final results.
“We are not saying that you should go out there and give results that favour our girls even if they are not doing well, but when they do well on the field of play, it should also reflect on paper,” said Mwiya.
With regards to the coronavirus outbreak that has forced some major sports events around the world to be cancelled, Mwiya said so far there are only two countries the NSC is not allowed to send athletes to and these are China and Italy.
He said Egypt is one of the countries that has been cleared as a low risk destination by the World Health Organisation.
On her part, Olivier said strong measures have been put in place by the International Gymnastics Federation to protect athletes from contracting the virus. – Nampa
The team, consisting of Mea-Nine Olivier, Joy-Lana Kaboy and D'Laine Olivier, will compete in the under 13, 11 and nine year age categories respectively. They are being accompanied by their head coach Sonja Olivier, who is also the president of the Namibia Gymnastics Federation, and judge Britt Adonis-Byl.
During their send-off ceremony yesterday, the team was accorded national sport colours and the sports code to guide their professional conduct when competing at national, regional, intercontinental and international championships.
Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) chief administrator Freddy Mwiya said it is good that the team is being accompanied by a judge, because sometimes when Namibian athletes compete in competitions, they do well on the field of play but this is not reflected in the final results.
“We are not saying that you should go out there and give results that favour our girls even if they are not doing well, but when they do well on the field of play, it should also reflect on paper,” said Mwiya.
With regards to the coronavirus outbreak that has forced some major sports events around the world to be cancelled, Mwiya said so far there are only two countries the NSC is not allowed to send athletes to and these are China and Italy.
He said Egypt is one of the countries that has been cleared as a low risk destination by the World Health Organisation.
On her part, Olivier said strong measures have been put in place by the International Gymnastics Federation to protect athletes from contracting the virus. – Nampa
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