Flying Namibians Into Final
NAMIBIA’S golden girls Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi gave superb performances on their debut at the Tokyo Olympics yesterday to both qualify for today’s women’s 200m final.
With both denied an opportunity to compete in their favourite 400m event, where they would have been strong medal contenders, with the world’s fastest and third fastest times this year, they lit up the track at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium when the 200m heats got underway yesterday morning.
In a matter of a few hours they rewrote the record books, as they scaled new heights.
In Heat 2 of the first round at 03h38 Namibian time, Masilingi gave a powerful performance to finish second behind Jamaican superstar Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to book her place in the semifinals.
Fraser-Pryce won the heat in 22,22 seconds, with Masilingi second in a new Namibian record of 22,63, while Holland’s former world champion Dafne Schippers came third in 23,13.
Barely 10 minutes later it was Mboma’s turn to steal the show and lower the national record.
Lining up against one of the gold medal favourites, Gabby Thomas of the United States, whose personal best time of 21,61 is the second fastest ever in the world, Mboma got off to a poor start and at the halfway stage was about five metres behind Thomas.
With her customary acceleration Mboma, however, ate up the ground over the home straight to pip Thomas to the post in a new Namibian record of 22,11 seconds, while she also broke the under 20 world record of 22,18 seconds that the legendary American Allyson Felix had set at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
With that, the two Namibians qualified for the semifinals, where they pushed the bar even further with some more superlative performances.
In the first semifinal, Masilingi once again came up against Fraser-Pryce, who flew out of the blocks to take a comfortable lead at the halfway mark, with American Jenna Prandini lying second.
Masilingi, however, finished strongly, overtaking a fading Prandini down the home straight to finish second behind Fraser-Pryce who won in 22,13, with Masilingi second in a new personal best time of 22,40 seconds, to clinch an automatic place in the final.
A few minutes later it was Mboma’s turn again as she once again lined up against Thomas and another gold medal favourite, Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica, who had already won the 100m gold medal on Saturday.
Thompson-Herah streaked into the lead, with Thomas second going into the home straight, while Mboma was lying towards the back of the field. Mboma, however, turned on the speed and closed the gap on Thomas to pip her at the line and finish second to take an automatic final spot.
Thompson-Herah won the heat in 21,66 seconds, while second-placed Mboma once again lowered the Namibian national record as well as the under 20 world record with a fantastic time of 21,97 seconds. Thomas came third in 22,01 seconds.
With that the two Namibian superstars made history by becoming the first Namibian female athletes to qualify for a track final at the Olympic Games, and the first Namibian athletes overall, since Frank Fredericks 25 years ago in Atlanta.
With five of the eight finalists all having personal best times below 22 seconds, it promises to be an explosive final, which could even see Florence Griffith Joyner’s 33-year-old world record of 21,34 seconds being threatened.
The Jamaicans Thompson-Herah (21,66) and Fraser-Pryce (21,79), the American Gabby Thomas (21,61) and Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas (21,74) will start as the favourites, but don’t write off those flying Namibians.
By Namibian.
