{"id":38115,"date":"2026-06-26T14:48:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T12:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=38115"},"modified":"2026-06-26T14:48:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T12:48:05","slug":"namibian-athletes-challenge-continental-elite-at-sa-half-marathon","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/namibian-athletes-challenge-continental-elite-at-sa-half-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Namibian athletes challenge continental elite at SA half marathon \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three of Namibia\u2019s top long-distance runners are gearing up to compete against some of the continent&#8217;s finest athletes at the prestigious Nelson Mandela Bay Half-Marathon in Gqeberha, South Africa (SA), this Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The three-member squad includes defending women&#8217;s champion Lavinia Haitope, alongside Simon Mathias and Elton Hiskia, who both won their respective categories at the 2025 QKR Navachab Half-Marathon. The athletes were officially sent off earlier this week ahead of their journey to the Eastern Cape Province.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Navachab race organiser Berthold Karumendu highlighted that sending the athletes to SA is a strategic move to develop local sports.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The trip is about more than simply competing in another event,&#8221; Karumendu said. &#8220;It represents an investment in the future of Namibian athletics and an opportunity for local runners to test themselves against elite competition from across the continent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Nelson Mandela Bay Half-Marathon is widely regarded as one of SA&#8217;s premier road-running events. Because it also serves as the SA national championship race, the Namibian contingent can expect an exceptionally competitive field on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":38116,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-38115","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Three of Namibia\u2019s top long-distance runners are gearing up to compete against some of the continent's finest athletes","published_date":"2026-06-26 13:58:57","news_description":"Three of Namibia\u2019s top long-distance runners are gearing up to compete against some of the continent's finest athletes","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38117,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38115\/revisions\/38117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}