NamibiaSport

Morihei Anderson and Elmarie Oosthuizen were the top male and female gymnasts at the Namibia Gymnastics Federation Artistic Gymnastics Championships which took place in Windhoek over the weekend.

Anderson, who is from Excelsior club, was the only participant in the Junior Olympic level and managed to obtain a total of 72.25 points overall for all six apparatus.



In the women’s section, Elmarize Oosthuizen, also from Excelsior, was the winner in Level 10, which is for 13 years and older gymnasts, with a total of 43.65 points in four apparatus.

In the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) the other level winners were as follows: Monia van Vuuren, Mbatjaa Tjingaete, Uetuu Katjivena, Darnell Jarmann, Tanita Human, Annette van Staden, Bianca van der Westhuizen, Katja Serrer and Nadine Jaeger.

In the Men’s Artistic Gymnastics (MAG), the other level winners were: Y’Cliff Luipert, Scholts Steytler, Juan Viljoen, Juan Lamprecht, Jadie Mostert, CJ Bezeidenhout, and Piet Liebenberg.

In the WAG, they were competing in four apparatus namely, floor, beam, vault and the uneven bars. The men on the other hand competed on six different apparatus, namely the floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar.

Event organiser, Gabi Serrer, a committee member from Excelsior club, was very happy with the way the competition went.

“There was a very high quality of gymnastics exhibited at the competition. There is a huge improvement from last year,” Serrer said.

“It is always good for the gymnasts to see where they stand and if they have improved and that was one of the main aims of this competition; the other reason was to select a team that will compete at the Zone VI competition due to be held in Zimbabwe in December,” she said.

The Zone VI Gymnastics competition will be held from 7 to 12 December in Harare. All competitive types of gymnastics will be covered at the competition, including men and women’s artistic, rhythmic, trampoline and tumbling and aerobics.

A total of 198 gymnasts from eight clubs took part in the annual championship.