//Gowaseb eyes 3rd Special Olympics crown
By Michael Uugwanga
THE country’s only Special Olympic marathon runner Ruben //Gowaseb has been hard in training ahead of the 2023 Special Olympic Summer Games in Berlin, Germany.
//Gowaseb (43) is a two-time Special Olympics gold medallist, having won the gold medal in 2015 in Los Angeles, U.S.A and again in 2019 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The outspoken //Gowaseb said his job is just to make the country proud as always adding that he has successfully recovered from an ankle injury he sustained on his way to win the title in Abu Dhabi.
“I have been working hard in training, running from Katutura to University of Namibia (UNAM) Road in Academia. I am going to Germany to defend the title once again.
I am mentally and physically ready. I always want to make my country proud. I will not promise that I am going to win the title but I can assure you that my aim is to win.
“I have recovered from the ankle injury I sustained in 2019 even though no one from Olympic committee asked me about it, neither from Government or the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC), but I am fine now,” he said.
//Gowaseb said that he has been training on his own since he does not have a coach since he returned from Abu Dhabi, with his last coach being Richard Daka.
“I am currently without a coach. Daka has been out of the country for a very long time. I am training on my own. Look, I am not having any person agenda against Mboma and Masilingi, but I think I also deserve the same financial support those two are getting because I have won two consecutive gold medals and I am going for a third one. I also want to be assisted with running shoes because these shoes are very old. The money (N 000) I received was meant to pay things in the house, such as electricity, water bills and also to take care of my family,” said //Gowaseb.
He has therefore also appealed to the corporate world to come on board and fund him just like how the private sector is funding athletes Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi.
Last month, he was rewarded with N$40 000 by the National Sports Reward Policy.