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Records an early boost to Masilingi's confidence

• 1 Day Ago 04 February 2025

Former Olympic finalist Beatrice Masilingi took her first promising steps for the 2025 season last Saturday at an indoor athletics meeting in Belgium where she registered two Namibian senior women’s indoor records in the 60 and 200 metres.

Masilingi improved Sadé de Sousa’s mark of 7.37 seconds that was set at a college event in Pittsburgh, USA, in March of 2023. Jolene Jacobs was also a previous record holder at 7.46 seconds (February 2020 in Birmingham, UK).

Saturday’s outing was also the 21-year-old Namibian speedster’s first taste on an indoor track that is only 200 meters long with two bends to deal with at the Flanders International Meeting in Gent.

She ran three heats in the 60 metres, before she was invited to participate in the 200 as well. In the first 60 m heat she clocked 7.44 seconds and achieved the first place. In the semi-final she came third with 7.35 s and in the 60 m final she was seventh with 7.39 s.

With the Tokyo World Athletics Championship (13-21 September 2025) in mind, a rusty Masilingi delivered a consistent performance running in lane one, eight and four respectively. In the 60 m semi-final she was beaten by Rani Rosius of Belgium in 7.23 s. Rani also won the 60 final in 7.24 s.

In one of two finals for the 200, Masilingi showed excellent endurance with 23.65 s on the clock for the first place. The other 200 m final was won by Imke Vervaet from Belgium with compatriot Rani Rosius second in 23.67 s.

The overall combined result of the two 200 m finals gave Vervaet the first place with Masilingi second, while Rosius was placed third.

Her coach Henk Botha says he did not expect fireworks from the 2021 Olympic 200 m finalist this early in the season.

“We landed in Belgium only 24 hours before the meeting and Beatrice had barely time to acclimatise and shed the jet lag. This was her first-ever indoor meeting. I am very proud of how Beatrice performed.

“For both of us, the indoor meeting was a first and a rather strange experience. We are flying out to Finland (Tuesday morning) for the next indoor meeting on Thursday 6 February at the Tampere Indoor Meeting. I believe Beatrice will gain momentum and perform even better there.”



World rankings

Masilingi’s indoor 7.35 s in the 60 m moved her into the 135th spot on World Athletics’ top list for 2025 so far. Her season opener in the indoor 200 (23.65) places her in the joint 77th place worldwide.

• Murielle Ahouré from Ivory Coast’s 60 m indoor Africa record of 6.97 s (set in 2018) appears to be safe for the time being. Equally, Favour Ofili of Nigeria’s blistering quick 200 m indoor Africa record of 22.11 s (2023) is a tall order.

The 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships is slated for 21 to 23 March in Nanjing, China, and has been declared among the goals of Botha and his top female sprinter. Masilingi has until 9 March to achieve the 60 m qualifying mark for Nanjing, namely 7.15 seconds. The 200 metres is no longer an indoor world championship event.

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