16 April 2008
Windhoek — Marathon athlete Beata Naigambo qualified for the Olympic Games when she recently came third at the Mangyongdae Prize Marathon in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Naigambo finished in a great time of 2 hours, 33 minutes and 17 seconds, which was well within the Olympic A qualifying time of 2:37:00 and more than five minutes faster than her previous best over the distance.
Her time was just 11 seconds slower than the Namibian record that Helaria Johannes set less than a month before at the Seoul Marathon in South Korea. Naigambo's manager, Dewald Steyn, said that it was a great performance by Naigambo. "Beata is in great form at the moment and I expected her to do well. She ran most of the race on her own and to run such a time on your own is really a good achievement," he said. With the performance Naigambo made sure of qualifying for the Olympics after Johannes snatched her place after qualifying at the Seoul Marathon in March.
Naigambo set a B qualifying time when she won the South African Marathon Championships in February with a time of 2:38:43, which was well inside the Olympic B qualifying time of 2:42:00. But countries may only enter athletes under a B qualifying time if they don't have any athletes who set an A qualifying time. When Johannes set an A qualifying time at the Seoul Marathon, it meant that Naigambo had to once again qualify, but with an A qualification time. Naigambo however responded magnificently in Pyongyang to book her ticket to the Olympic Games. Meanwhile, two other Namibian male athletes who participated at Pyongyang failed to qualify for the Olympics. Reinhold Iita could not complete the race after injuring his Achilles tendon and withdrew shortly after the halfway mark.
Tobias Hiskia managed to complete the race, coming 14th overall in a time of 2:21:27, which was well outside the A qualifying time of 2:15:00. Johannes continued her good form of late when she won a half marathon event in Nelspruit, South Africa on April 6, with a time of 1:14:45. She finished almost two minutes ahead of Mamarolla Tjoka of Lesotho, who came second in 1:16:22. Last Sunday, Johannes came second in the 10km Spar Ladies Race in Cape Town, finishing behind Rene Calmer of South Africa. Asked how he thought Naigambo and Johannes would fare at the Olympic Games, Steyn said it all depended on how they coped with the conditions.
"Both Beata and Helaria are in great form. It all depends on what the conditions will be like in Beijing, but I believe Helaria can go under 2:30," he said.
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