N$500 000 needed to send youth team to Bahamas

By John Tuerijama
A whopping N$500 000 is urgently needed to send the Namibian team to the upcoming Commonwealth Youth Games, slated for 18 to 23 July in the Bahamas.
Namibia National Olympic Com­mittee (NNOC) Secretary-General, Joan Smit, told Confidente this week that the athletes selected to repre­sent Namibia in the Bahamas had performed extremely well in recent sporting events, some of which took place last year.
The Namibia team, comprising of nine athletes, is expected to leave for the Bahamas on 15 July.
In their quest to help the athletes and officials make the trip to the Bahamas, the NNOC has organ­ised a fundraising dinner, sched­uled for 27 April at the Safari Hotel and Conference Centre.
Corporates and embassies have been invited to attend.
Smit said that the NNOC had not contributed any funding to­wards the preparation of the ath­letes, but added that the respective sport federations had taken on the responsibility to oversee the indi­vidual preparation of their various participants.
Namibia is scheduled to send athletics, boxing, cycling and ten­nis representatives to the Bahamas, with each sport code also being represented by an official.
The representatives include ten­nis players Codie van Schalkwyk and Gina Moolman, as well as boxers Tangeni Ngampandhi and Morning Try Again Ndevelo.
“These athletes are the cream of the crop, and their ages range from 14. Our two boxers made some no­table strides during the under-20 regional games, held in Angola last year,” said Smit.
She said that the Common­wealth Youth Games is an ideal in­ternational platform, on which to expose the Namibian participants to the world.
She said the competition pro­duces junior world champions and will be a great experience for the young Namibians.
The spectacle sees 70 Common­wealth nations competing against each other. Meanwhile, Smit also announced that the Queen’s Baton will arrive in Namibia, from Zambia, on 27 April. She said the baton will be accompanied by members of the Commonwealth Games Organis­ing Committee in Australia and the Vice-President of the Africa Region Commonwealth Games Federation, Miriam Moyo, who will spent two days visiting various locations in the Namibian capital. The baton will de­part for neighbouring Botswana on the 1 May