Helalia to be welcomed at fifth Olympics
Athletics
Johannes (43) is the only Namibian athlete, male or female, that has competed at four Olympic Games.
Marathon queen Helalia Johannes is the fourth Namibian athlete who will join qualified Phillip Seidler, Vera Looser and Alex Miller at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.Seidler will represent his country for the second time in the 10 kilometre open water swimming event following his impressive 16th-place debut at Tokyo 2021, while Looser and Miller will showcase their talent in the cross-country mountain biking competition.
Miller, now 23 years old, finished in a respectable 31st place in his debut in Tokyo, before winning bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham the next year.
Looser (30) has competed in two previous Olympic Games as a road cyclist and has been an impressive performer in the UCI Marathon mountain biking World Cup Series.
Johannes (43) is the only Namibian athlete, male or female, that has competed at four Olympic Games, achieving a best finish of 11th at Tokyo 2021, 12th at London 2012, 40th at Beijing 2008, and did not finish at Rio de Janeiro 2016.
She received a special invitation to the upcoming Paris Games through World Athletics’ Universality Placing. Top contenders in the women's marathon in Paris include Tigst Assefa and Amane Beriso Shankule (both Ethiopian) as well as Ruth Chepngetich and Rosemary Wanjiru from Kenya.
Joan Smit, secretary-general of the Namibia National Olympic Committee, told Sport Wrap that Johannes is in top form.
“Helalia is really spirited to shine in Paris. She has worked very hard and she ran excellent times this year. She wil represent Namibia in France.”
Johannes’ marathon accolades include a bronze medal at the 2019 World Championship in Doha. At the Commonwealth Games, she has won gold (at Gold Coast in Australia 2018) and a bronze medal (at Birmingham 2022), as well as a bronze medal at the All Africa Games.
She also won the Valencia Marathon in Spain (2020) registering a Namibian national record in a time of 2 hours 19 minutes 52 seconds.
In 2022 Johannes set a new national half-marathon record in Gqeberha, South Africa, by crossing the finishing line in 1:07:49 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Half Marathon.
The national 10 km road record of 30 minutes 59 seconds also belongs to Johannes for which she registered in June 2019. In 2019 she dominated the 10 km Spar Grand Prix Challenge in South Africa by winning the series in total.
In October 2019 Johannes broke the national 5 000 meter track record (15:14.23) at the Military World Games in Wuhan, China.
• Due to poor management by the Namibia Amateur Boxing Federation, this will be the first Olympics in decades in which the country will not have any boxers participating at the Olympic Games.
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