NamibiaSport

Namibia will take on South Africa in the first leg qualifier for the 2009 Inline Hockey World Championships in Swakopmund on Sunday, August 24.

The return leg will take place in Johannesburg the following weekend, on August 30.

The first game will be staged as part of the annual Coastal Pirates Tournament to be held from August 22-25 at the SFC Hall in Swakopmund.



Namibia will face South Africa in an Inline Hockey World Cup qualifier in Swakopmund on Sunday, August 24, 2008.

The winner of the qualification games will join Great Britain, Brazil and Hungary in Group D for the IIHF Men’s World Championships 2009 to be held in Germany.

Namibia competed at the World Championships for three years in a row from 2005 to 2007, but failed to reach the 2008 World Cup finals.

Other countries growing stronger

“While our open team managed to bring back gold from the Southern American Championships in 2007 we have yet to beat Brazil at the IIHF World Championships. We have seen considerable improvement in Team Namibia’s overall performance in each of the previous tournaments. Notably, Namibia’s improvement has also coincided with a steady improvement in the overall competitiveness of the IIHF Championships’ participating teams from the top to bottom teams. This led to Namibia’s relegation from the IIHF World Championships for 2007,” Namibia’s PRO Gudrun Denker said.

The Namibian Open Team is made up of ‘veteran’ players that have participated in the previous IIHF World Championships as well as younger players who recently competed in the 2008 FIRS Junior Men’s World Championships in Philadelphia. Namibia’s former captain Quintin Kotze will coach the team.