Sports achievers excel at RASA level

Paralympic stars Ananias Shikongo and Johanna Benson were two of Namibia's winners at the awards last weekend.
NAMPA
The chief administrator of the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC), Simataa Mwiya, has called on sport codes in the country to work hard to place Namibia on the regional sport map.

His said this yesterday during a welcoming ceremony of Namibian athletes and a journalist who won awards at the second edition of the Regional Annual Sports Awards (RASA).

The RASA awards were held in Johannesburg, South Africa, last Saturday, and three Namibian athletes and a sports journalist walked away with four of the 12 awards that were contested for on the night.

Mwiya said the time had come for the nation to start recognising all the hard work done by athletes.

The RASA awards recognise the previous year's national Sports Awards winners within the 10 member states of the African Union Sports Council (AUSC), Region Five.

Mwiya added that winning four awards should be used as ­encouragement for all Namibian athletes and administrators to start working hard. Only South Africa won more categories with a total of five.

“We entered eight Namibian athletes for the awards and four of them walked away with trophies and the other four finished as runners-up.”

The 10 members states are Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Namibia's 2016 Paralympic Games gold medallist Ananias Shikongo walked away with the Disability Sportsman of the Year award after beating Charl du Toit from South Africa and Munyaradzi Musariri from Zimbabwe for top honours.

Another Namibian athlete, Johanna Benson, won the Disability Sportswoman of the Year award against Ilse Hayes from South Africa and Margaret Bangajena from Zimbabwe.

Namibian karate star Mayvonne Swart walked away with the Junior Sportswoman of the Year award.

Kaino Nghitongo won Namibia's fourth award at the RASA as Journalist of the Year, after beating Thabiso Sithole (RSA) and Henry Mhara of Zimbabwe. Nghitongo was employed at the Namibian Sun until last year.

Four more Namibians finished as runners-up – the kickboxer Delano Muller for Junior Sportsman of the Year; De Wet Moolman, who does karate, for Sportsman of the Year; athlete Beata Naigambo for Sportswoman of the Year and Michael Humukwanya of the Paralympic Committee for Coach of the Year.

Shikongo was also nominated in the most prestigious Sportsperson of the Year category, but lost out to South African sprint sensation Wayde van Niekerk who retained the accolade he won in his maiden year.

All RASA category winners were awarded N$50 000, while runner-up spots were worth N$5 000. -Nampa

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