Armas, Coetzee, Rainhold to wave the Namibian flag

Athletics
Tielman Van Lill
  • 9 Months Ago 17 August 2023
Twenty-six-year-old long jumper Lionel Coetzee as well as marathon runners Alina Armas (39) and Tomas Rainhold (32) departed this week to take part in the 19th Athletics World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Armas and Rainhold will compete in the marathon over 42.2 kilometers on August 26 and 27 at 07:00 respectively. Coetzee is Namibia's 2023 long jump champion and with 8.27 meters the new record holder. He jumps in the qualifying round on the morning of August 23rd. Hopefully he can warm up for the final the following evening at 19:30.

The qualifying standard for men is 8.25 m and Coetzee just qualified for the World Championship with his record jump. This world stage is the best learning school for the young Coetzee where he will rub shoulders with Wang Jianan of China, the defending world champion. Jianan won gold in 2022 with 8.36. The distance for silver was 8.32 m and bronze 8.16.

According to Athletics Namibia, Armas and Rainhold qualified by World ranking. Armas achieved a seventh place at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, with 2 hours 33 minutes 30 seconds. She has not officially run a marathon in 2023 yet. Her personal best is 2:33:09, set in 2015.

Rainhold recorded 2:12:55 in Korea last year and clocked in with 2:17:15 in February 2023 in Botswana. His 2:17:15 places him 665th for 2023. He completed the marathon in 2:10:24 (2021) for his personal best in Italy.

Gotytom Gebreslase (28) and Tamirat Tola (32) of Ethiopia are the defending world champions. Gebreslase (2:18:11) and Tola (2:05:36) won their titles in July 2022 in Eugene, Oregon and will defend it in Budapest.

Africa will definitely dominate the marathon once again. Among others, Armas will face the stopwatch against Selly Chepyego, Shyline Jepkorir, Rosemary Wanjiru (all Kenya), Tsehay Gemechu (Ethiopia) and the Ethiopian-born Sifan Hassan (Nederland).

Wanjiru (2:16:28) currently holds the fastest time in 2023 with Gemechu (2:16:56) second.

Rainhold will face the likes of Timothy Kiplagat (2:03:50), Titus Kipruto (2:05:32) and Joshua Belet (2:04:33) of Kenya with blistering fast times in 2023. Ethiopia's Gadisa Shumie (2:04:59) is another strong contender.

The World Championships starts Saturday and continues until 27 August.

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