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It’s quite a day for Namibian Christine Mboma who earned the 2021 Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) African Female Hope Athlete award. As it turns out, Henk Botha, her coach was selected as African coach of the year.
Mboma won the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics Games in the 200m event. The Olympian also earned gold at the U20 World Athletics Championships.
In the 400m event, she is the seventh-fastest woman all-time achieved at just age 18.
African Sportswoman Stop Press! Namibia’s teenage girls have dominated the world u20 200m event at the world athletics championship in Nairobi. Christine Mboma is the world u20 200m champion and Beatrice Masilinga won the silver medal. It was a 1,2,3 placing for African girls pic.twitter.com/Nn9J6vJuHv
— cheryl roberts (@cherylroberts00) August 21, 2021
Mboma is the first Namibian woman to win an Olympic medal.
In July, it was announced by the Namibian National Olympic Committee that Mboma as well as fellow Namibian sprinter Beatrice Masilingi would not be permitted to compete in the 400m event at the Tokyo Olympics due to a World Athletics rule that women who produce a certain level of testosterone over 5 nmol/L.
Mboma and Masilingi underwent medical testing in Italy, where they tested positive for elevated testosterone levels due to a naturally occurring genetic condition. Both sprinters had been unaware of the condition prior to the evaluation.
Mboma owns a 200m best of 21.78 which is a national record and a U20 world record. She ran that performance in Zurich in September. In June in Bydgoszcz, Poland she ran her current 400m best of 48.54, also a national record. She is a five-time national champion.
Masilingi also an 18-year-old Namibian has run the third-fastest U20 time in the world for the 400m 49.53. She picked up three silver medals at the World U20 Championships in the 100m, 200m, and 4 x 100m events. Her best in the 100m event is 11.20, while she has run as fast as 22.18 in the 200m and 49.53 in the 400m. Masilingi finished sixth in the 200m event in Tokyo.
