Nambala and Ipinge find going tough at World Champs

Namibia’s T13 and T12 sprinters Johannes Nambala and Lahja Ipinge missed out on an opportunity to represent their country in the final of the World Para Athletics Championships after disappointing performances on Wednesday.
The 2024 World Para Athletics Championships are underway in Kobe, Japan at the Universiade Memorial Stadium, with 11 para-athletes and seven guides representing Namibia.
Ipinge and Nambala competed in the 100m and 400m categories respectively during the evening session of the championships.
Ipinge, along with her guide Paulus Fillipus, was disqualified on Tuesday during her 400m heat. They once again took to the track, this time for the 100m heats, and ran a seasonal best of 13.23 seconds. The heat was won by Shen Yaqin of China and her guide Li Wen with a time of 12.65 seconds.
Ipinge’s time placed her sixth in the standings, as only the winner of the three heats and one of the fastest times from the three heats qualified for the final.
Meanwhile Nambala, the 2023 World Champs silver medallist in the 400m, missed out on an opportunity to represent Namibia in the final after being disqualified for infringing rule 18.2 during his 400m heat.
Rule 18.2 deals with obstruction and states that if an athlete or the athlete’s guide-runner is jostled or obstructed during an event so as to impede his progress, they will be disqualified.
The rule was used to disqualify Nambala, who finished seventh overall in the 100m final earlier this week. His results in his last race at the championship did not count due to the impediment.
(NAMPA)
HK/AS/PS
(NAMPA)