20 November 2008
INCUMBENT Athletics Namibia (AN) president Alpha Kangueehi is confident that he will retain the presidency of the national athletics body at the forthcoming elective congress, scheduled for Katima Mulilo this Saturday.
Kangueehi, who took the top post of AN from Buddy Wentworth four years ago, will be challenged by former sprint Olympian Frank Fredericks, who has also been nominated to stand for the AN presidency.
Kangueehi told Nampa yesterday that the elective congress was going to be democratic and transparent, as it was in the past.
He welcomed his challenger Fredericks to the 'battlefield', adding that the best candidate will be entrusted with the task of taking athletics to greater heights at future sub-regional, continental and world events.
A statement presented to Nampa by Kangueehi read that the decision reached during the Tsumeb Congress in 2004 gave rise to the Southern African permit meeting, which AN decided to adopt and implement following Kangueehi's proposal which provides a strategic blueprint, a coherent programme of action and a tool with which AN can clarify not only a clear vision for the future but also identify the measures and targeted actions which are outlined.
In decentralising the sport, Kangueehi said his leadership has taken athletics to the regions, which is something that had been neglected in the past.
"Now we are talking about athletics in the regions, before it was just Khomas Region's clubs which were resourced, benefiting only a small section of the country's population while the majority of the regions were excluded or did not have a say in the administration of athletics," he boasted.
He further alleged that complaints he reads in the local media now were mainly from the Khomas Athletics region's clubs, and not from the majority of AN's members.
Said Kangueehi: "I will stand again for presidency to campaign for the development of athletics at ground level, both in the Khomas Region and the other 12 regions, and oppose the usurpation of athletics for the gratification of only a few."
Regions scheduled to elect a new leadership are Hardap, Khomas, Otjozondjupa, Caprivi, Kavango, Erongo, Oshikoto and Oshana.
Nampa
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