Haitengi sets new Namibian triple jump record

Rodger Haitengi was Namibia’s star performer at the fourth leg of the South African Yellow Pages Athletics Series in Johannesburg on March 24, setting a new national triple jump record.

Haitengi came second in the men’s triple jump final with a leap of 16,38 metres, which was an improvement of three centimetres on his previous national record, reports Namibia Sport.

Haitengi established his previous national record at the Coca Cola Frank Fredericks Invitational Meet in 2007.

Haitengi has recently been in fine form and came second in the men’s triple jump at the South African National Championships in Durban on March 20. On that occasion he cleared a distance of 16,14m to finish second behind South Africa’s Tumelo Thagane, who won gold with a leap of 17,05m.

21-year-old sprinter Tjipekapora Herunga came second in the women’s 200m in a time of 24,14 seconds, while she finished sixth in the 100m in a new personal best time of 12,03 seconds.

At the South African Championships in Durban, Herunga also finished second in the 200m final in a new Namibian record time of 23,72 seconds.

Sprinter Hitjiverua Kaanjuka came sixth in the men’s 100m final in a time of 10,60 seconds, while he came third in the 200m B race in a time of 21,27 seconds.

Namibia’s 21-year-old middle distance athlete Daniel Nghipandelwa came third in the men’s 800m B race in a time of 1:51,40.

Salomon Tuaire came third in the men’s high jump event, clearing a height of 2,00 metres.

Namibia’s top athletes are expected to return home to compete in the Bank Windhoek Senior National Championships on April 10, since this will be the final local qualifying event before the African Senior Athletics Championships which take place in Nairobi, Kenya from July 28 to August 1.