The 21-year-old sprinters Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi will compete at the World Athletics Continental Tour’s Golden Grand Prix in for Botswana's capital Gaborone on Saturday 12 April, their coach Henk Botha has confirmed.
Masilingi had fully recovered from a shoulder injury sustained during an unfortunate fall during training in China ahead of the recent Indoor World Championship, while Mboma has been training and preparing for competitions since her last sporadic appearances on the track. Botha announced that both sprinters will be involved in the 100 metres at the event. “The news that I have regarding Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi is that they were accepted in the World Athletics Continental Tour’s Golden Grand Prix in Botswana and both will be running the 100 metres. “This will be their great comeback and this is our fight to get back on international level.
“Do not expect great times, but I think both of them are ready to be competitive and hopefully they can start to make Namibia proud again,” Botha told the media on Monday.
During 2021 and 2022, the pair of teenagers and their coach were on a seemingly unstoppable world-beating course, until World Athletics first restricted and then brought their active careers to a complete halt through a controversial finding of naturally high testosterone levels in both, which they were expected to lower through the intake of medication. Testosterone levels are still monitored, with the Namibian stars expected to be re-allowed to compete in their favoured 400 metres distance towards the end of this year. They are currently allowed to be entered in 100 or 200 races. After each of the former training partners under Botha took separate breaks to be under different management, he also recently announced that Masilingi and Mboma are now signed under his Botha Sports Agency.
Records
Mboma won a silver medal in the 200m at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first-ever Namibian woman to win a women’s Olympic medal and breaking a world under-20 and African senior record. She also won a gold medal at the 2021 World U20 Championship in Nairobi. At the age of 18, Masilingi placed sixth in the 200 metres final at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, behind silver medallist Mboma. Masilingi won silver medals in both the 100 and 200 at the 2021 World U20 Championship. In the 400, Masilingi achieved the second-fastest world under-18 time, and the third-fastest world under-20 time in history, with her marks of 50.42 and 49.53 seconds set in December 2020 and April 2021, respectively. Their personal bests in the 100 and 200: Masilingi 11.20 and 22.18; Mboma 10.97 and 21.78.
Masilingi had fully recovered from a shoulder injury sustained during an unfortunate fall during training in China ahead of the recent Indoor World Championship, while Mboma has been training and preparing for competitions since her last sporadic appearances on the track. Botha announced that both sprinters will be involved in the 100 metres at the event. “The news that I have regarding Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi is that they were accepted in the World Athletics Continental Tour’s Golden Grand Prix in Botswana and both will be running the 100 metres. “This will be their great comeback and this is our fight to get back on international level.
“Do not expect great times, but I think both of them are ready to be competitive and hopefully they can start to make Namibia proud again,” Botha told the media on Monday.
During 2021 and 2022, the pair of teenagers and their coach were on a seemingly unstoppable world-beating course, until World Athletics first restricted and then brought their active careers to a complete halt through a controversial finding of naturally high testosterone levels in both, which they were expected to lower through the intake of medication. Testosterone levels are still monitored, with the Namibian stars expected to be re-allowed to compete in their favoured 400 metres distance towards the end of this year. They are currently allowed to be entered in 100 or 200 races. After each of the former training partners under Botha took separate breaks to be under different management, he also recently announced that Masilingi and Mboma are now signed under his Botha Sports Agency.
Records
Mboma won a silver medal in the 200m at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first-ever Namibian woman to win a women’s Olympic medal and breaking a world under-20 and African senior record. She also won a gold medal at the 2021 World U20 Championship in Nairobi. At the age of 18, Masilingi placed sixth in the 200 metres final at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, behind silver medallist Mboma. Masilingi won silver medals in both the 100 and 200 at the 2021 World U20 Championship. In the 400, Masilingi achieved the second-fastest world under-18 time, and the third-fastest world under-20 time in history, with her marks of 50.42 and 49.53 seconds set in December 2020 and April 2021, respectively. Their personal bests in the 100 and 200: Masilingi 11.20 and 22.18; Mboma 10.97 and 21.78.
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