Shikongo delivers on his promise
ANANIAS Shikongo gave a superb performance on Thursday to win the Men's T11 200m gold medal in a new Paralympic Games record time of 22,44 seconds, which was just 0,03 seconds outside the world record.
Brazil's Felipe Gomes came second in 22,52 seconds, while another Brazilian Daniel Silva came third in 23,04.
Speaking to Nampa after the race, Shikongo said he had delivered on his promise to win the gold medal.
“I came here to show the world that we work very hard in Namibia. I promised gold in the 200m and I delivered it with a new Paralympic record, which is a good thing for me as an athlete.
“I will continue working hard as the competition is getting hard and everyone would want to beat me now when we get to other competitions,” he said.
His guide Tjiviju added that the race was tough. He said running as Ananias' guide is always a tough job as he has to be at the top of his game.
“I am happy to win a Paralympic gold medal with Ananias. We have been working really hard for this and as a guide I am forced to always be at the top of my fitness game because Ananias is a really fast guy.
“With this gold I am now motivated as an athlete to also work hard on realising my dream of one day competing in the Olympics,” he said.
It was Shikongo's second medal at the Games after he had earlier won bronze in the T11 100m, while Namibia now has four medals in total.
Earlier on Thursday Johannes Nambala won silver in the Men's T13 400m final after being pipped to the line by Amgouon of Morocco in a new world record time of 47,15 seconds.
Both athletes broke Amgouon's previous world record, with the Moroccan just beating a diving Nambala to the line by 0,06 seconds.
It was Nambala's second silver medal after he came second in the T13 10m final on 9 September.
An indefatigable Shikongo will now attempt to add to Namibia's medal tally when he lines up for the T11 400m heats on Friday, with the first heat starting at 22h36 Namibian time.