Athletes and coaches are invited to attend the Marathon Sugar Quinton Steele Botes Athletics Training Camp which will be held at Windhoek's Independence Stadium from next Monday, 17 August to Friday, 21 August.

At a press conference in Windhoek on Wednesday, Marathon Sugar announced a sponsorship of N$50 000 for the event which has been named after the former athletics administrator Quinton Steele Botes who passed away last year.

"We would like to continue to support and develop the less fortunate coaches and athletes from the outlying rural areas in Namibia and at the same time treasure Quinton Steele Botes' dream and efforts of keeping athletics alive in Namibia and granting the less fortunate an equal opportunity," Genevieve Fisch of Marathon Sugar said.

The course will be organised by Athletics Namibia executive committee member Leonie van Rensburg, while six qualified coaches from South Africa and Namibia will be brought in to develop local Namibian coaches.

The South African coaches are Anton Mostert who specialises in long distance coaching, Zelda Mostert who specialises in middle distances and Lindly de Beer who specialises in the throwing events.

The Namibian coaches are headed by Roger Haitengi, who works at the University of Johannesburg and is the current Namibian triple jump record holder as well as an Africa bronze medalist.

Madelein Kotze will conduct the high jump courses while Setrick Bampton, who recently returned from a coaching course in Kenya, and is currently a Level 4 coach, will conduct the sprints and hurdles courses.

Van Rensburg said they had invited 15 aspiring athletics coaches from the outlying rural areas of Namibia so that they could plough their knowledge back into their communities.

Other coaches are welcome to attend the course free of charge, while athletes will have to pay a registration fee of N$150.

Other sponsors include Avis Car Rental, Coca-Cola Bottling Company and the Food Lovers Market.

The president of Athletics Namibia, Alna Similo was also present and thanked Marathon Sugar for its sponsorship as well as Van Rensburg for her efforts to promote athletics throughout Namibia.