Lahja now polished for Para Games

The opening of the 2024 Paralympic Games took place at 22:00 on Wednesday evening in France.Today we will have a peek at Lahja Ishitile, Namibia’s only female paralympic athlete in Paris. Lahja will compete in the 100 metre T11, 200 and 400m sprints. Her action kicked off today on the first day of the Para Athletics in heat two of the qualifying round of the 400m. The 27 year old Lahja was born on 21 Jul 1997 in Outapi, Owamboland, and went to Eluwa Special School in Ongwediva. She joined athletics in 2012 to stay occupied at school. The visually impaired Lahja always runs with her guide Sem Shimanda. She made her debut on the athletics track for Namibia in 2013 age 16.Lahja loves to sing and her heros are Zambian athletics coach Michael Hamukwaya, Namibian Para sprinters Johanna Benson and Johannes Nambala. Her first Para Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 came at a very young age. However, she managed a seventh place in the 100m final, a fifth place in the 200m final and a sixth place in the 400m final.In 2021 at the 2020 Tokyo Games in Japan, she ran in the 200m and 400m finals where she ended tenth and sixth respectively. In the long jump she managed a seventh place.She owns two Para Atheltics World championship medals. Last year at the 2023 Paris Para Athletics World Championships, she scooped silver in the 400m. At the 2024 Kobe Para Athletics World Championships in Japan, she took bronze in the same item.AwardsIn 2015 she received a Sporting Achievement Award from Disability Sports Namibia.She was given the Disabled Junior Sportswoman Award at the 2015 Namibia Sports Commission Sports Awards.Her spree continued in 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023 when she was presented with the Sportswoman of the Year with a Disability award at the Namibian Sports Awards.Fellow African competitorsJuliana Ngleya Moko from Angola and Na Brinbamde Domingas of Guinea-Bissau who will also run the 100, 200 and 400m dash. Her programmeThe 400m qualifying rounds today are taking place from 11:14 and the semi-finals at19:38. The 400m final will follow tomorrow at 19:46. The 100m qualifying heats are on 2 September from 12:12 and the semi-finals at 19:20 with the final on 3 September at 20:03. With no qualifying heats and semi-finals the 200m final is on September 8 at 19:23. – tielman@nsh.com.na

Lahja now polished for Para Games

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Lahja now polished for Para Games

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