Lahja and Ananias set new African records

Lahja Ishitile emphatically put aside the disappointment of not qualifying for the T11 100 metres semi-final earlier this week at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.The visually impaired Namibian sprinter established a lightning-fast new African record in the T11 200 metres during the qualifying round yesterday morning. Alongside her sprint guide Sem Shimanda, Ishitile had a particularly good start in the rain-soaked Stade de France stadium and almost won the race in 24.82 seconds. Only the winner in her round, Cuiqing Liu from China with 24.77 seconds, achieved a faster time than the Namibian. She will face Liu, Jerusa Geber dos Santos of Brazil (25.00 seconds) and Linda Patricia Perez Lopez of Venezuela (25.42) in the T11 200 metres final, scheduled for Saturday evening at 19:23.Liu is the holder of the T11 200 metres world record (24.36 seconds), which she achieved in May 2024 at the World Championship in Kobe, Japan. The current Paralympic T11 200 metres record is held by Libby Clegg of Britain at 24.51. The very same Linda Patricia Perez Lopez (12.181 seconds) eliminated the Namibian (12.187 seconds) in the 100 metres qualifying rounds by merely 0.006 of a second.Lahja was only 20 years old when she set the African 200 m T11 record (25.37s) at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games in Brazil, which she improved on yesterday. If she has another good race tomorrow, she appears to be assured of another medal.She already won a gold medal in the 400 final last Saturday with a T11 Paralympic Games record of 56.20 seconds. With this performance, she also erased her own African record (57.18 seconds) from the books.Although she did not qualify for the 100 meters T11 final, she improved her 100 meters T11 African record of 12.39 seconds, which she achieved in Kobe in May 2024, in the qualifying round with 12.12. She will take on the 200 meters T11 final tomorrow at 19:23.Shikongo into the 100 finalThe veteran Ananias Shikongo appears determined for silverware at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games in France.With guide Even Tjiuiju, Ananias advanced from the 100 m T11 semi-final with a good 11.18 seconds – a mere 0.07 of a second from his African record (11.11s). He secured a second spot in his semi-final race to progress with only Athanasios Ghavelas from Greece (11.08s, first), Timothee Adolphe of France (11.11s, first) and Dongdong Di from China (11.13s, first) as winners of their three respective semi-finals. Only four sprinters, with their guide runners, advanced to the 100m T11 final that was at 19:08 last night.&bull; Johannes Nambala yesterday ended fourth with 48.89 seconds in the 400 meters T13 final. The race was won by Skander Djamil Athmani from Algeria (47.43s) followed by Ryota Fukunaga of Japan (48.07s) and Buinder Brainer Bermudez Villar from Venezuela (48.83s). &bull; Petrus Karuli will be ready to tackle the qualifying heats of the 200 meter T37 this evening at 20:09. The final is on Saturday at 10:36. The women's 200 m T11 final is also on Saturday at 19:23. Stay up to date with the Namibian athletes’ results by checking up on Sport Wrap’s Facebook page. – tielman@nsh.com.na

Lahja and Ananias set new African records

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Lahja and Ananias set new African records

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