Namibian athletes with disabilities won three medals on the opening day of the World Para Athletics (WPA) 2023 Nottwil Grand Prix underway in Nottwil, Switzerland.

The fifth round of the WPA Grand Prix is being held at the Sport Arena Nottwil located at the Schweizer Paraplegic-Centre from 25 to 27 May 2023. This year’s Grand Prix forms part of the 10th anniversary of the WPA Grand Prix.

On the opening day of the championship on Thursday, track athletes walked away with three silver medals from the 200 metre (m) events.

The first athlete to win a medal for Team Namibia was T11 male sprinter, Immanuel Alfredo Bernado, who won silver after finishing first in his heat, but was second overall with a time of 24.92 seconds.

Kang Miyang of China won the gold medal. He won his heat with a time of 24.36 seconds to finish as the fastest athlete from the two heats that were held. Flores Peniche Jose de Jesus of Mexico took the last podium place.

T11 female sprinter Lahja Ishitile scooped another medal in the 200m sprint with a time of 27.06 seconds. Zhou Guohua of China won the gold with a time of 26.08 seconds.

Meanwhile another female sprinter, Lahja Ipinge, missed out on a podium position after finishing fourth in the T12 category, with a time of 28.72 seconds.

Namibia’s third medal on the day came from T37 sprinter Petrus Karuli, who won a silver in the 200m after winning his heat with a time of 26.27 seconds, but his overall time saw him end in second place.

Stijn van Bergen of the Netherlands won the T37 sprint with a time of 25.98 seconds after winning heat two of the T37 categories.

Lukas Schwechheimer of Germany won the bronze in the T37 event with a time of 27.95 seconds.

Denzel Namene, the T44 athlete, did not show up for his F44 long jump call room and was disqualified from the championship.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency