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Namibia: Johannes Qualifies for Beijing Olympics
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The Namibian (Windhoek)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 27 March 2008
Windhoek
Helaria Johannes gave an outstanding performance to come seventh at the Seoul Marathon on March 15 and qualify for the Olympic Games in Beijing.
In the process she once again broke the Namibian record on only her second attempt at the marathon in a new time of 2:33:06 and made double sure of qualifying for the Olympics after some confusion surrounded her previous qualifying attempt.
It was a remarkable feat, considering the amount of pressure she had been subjected to.
In October last year she competed in her first marathon in Dublin and astounded observers to finish fourth in a new Namibian record of 2:35:30.
This was well within the Olympic qualifying time and an elated Johannes had achieved her objective of going to the Olympics.
Or so she thought But then the bomb dropped when she was told that the Dublin Marathon was not accepted as an official Olympic qualifying event and that she had to compete in another marathon if she wanted to qualify for the Olympics.
Johannes' final chance to qualify came at the Seoul Marathon in South Korea on March 15.
Johannes got off to a good start and remained with the leading pack for the first half of the race.
The pace was exceptionally fast and at the halfway stage her time was 1 hour 13 minutes - well within her previous best.
But then her feet started hurting because her shoes were too tight and the rest of the marathon became increasingly painful.
"My shoes were too small and my toes were hurting a lot.
Especially on the downhills it was very painful and I couldn't run properly," she said.
Johannes dropped behind the leaders but battled on courageously despite blisters on her feet and eventually finished in seventh position.
It was a great achievement and since her time was well within the Olympic qualifying time, she knew that she had achieved her dream.
"I was in pain, but I was just so relieved to have qualified for the Olympics," she said.
Johannes' qualification for the Olympic Games now means that Beata Naigambo will have to try and qualify for the Olympics again.
Naigambo originally qualified when she won the South African Marathon Championships in February in a time of 2:38:43, which was well within the Olympic B qualifying time of 2:42:00.
But according to Olympics rules, an athlete may only enter on a B qualification time if no other athlete of the same country has qualified with an A qualifying time.
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With Johannes now qualifying well within the A qualifying time of 2:37:00, it means that Naigambo will once again have to try and qualify for the Olympics, but now she will have to set an A qualifying time.
Naigambo will probably have her last chance of qualifying when she competes at the North Korea Marathon in Pyongyang on April 6.
Other top Namibian marathon runners, Tobias Hiskia and Reinold Iita will also compete in the North Korean Marathon.
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