NamibiaSport

Ettienne de Villiers

Namibia hockey enjoyed reasonable success during 2010, with the senior teams losing to Zimbabwe in the Momentum International Hockey Challenge in August, although the junior teams showed great promise in international tournaments throughout the year.

The senior men and women’s teams however qualified by default for the 2011 Indoor World Cup after African powerhouses like South Africa and Egypt failed to turn up for the African qualifiers that were due to take place in Walvis Bay. They will now represent Namibia at the World Indoor Hockey Championships in Poland in February, 2011.

Juniors show great promise

In February, 2010, Namibia’s Under 17 boys and girls teams participated in the African qualifiers for the Junior Olympic Games in East London, South Africa where the girls’ team went on a great run to reach the final before losing to South Africa.

Namibia qualified for the final after beating Ghana 2-0, Zimbabwe 3-0 and Kenya 1-0, while losing 2-1 to South Africa in the group stages. In the final, however, South Africa beat Namibia 5-0.

The boys came last out of six nations, but they gave some promising performances. They beat Zimbabwe 4-2, drew 2-2 against Kenya and lost 2-0 to Egypt and 6-1 to South Africa.
After the group stages, they lost their final playoff match 2-0 against Zimbabwe.

Various Namibian junior teams participated successfully in Under 14, Under 16 and Under 18 categories at the South African Interprovincial Tournament in Bloemfontein during July.
Namibia’s girls excelled as they won the Under 18 gold medal as well as the Under 16 gold medal, while the Under 16 boys won the silver medal and the Under 18 boys the bronze medal.

In September, Namibia hosted a Pro Series Indoor Hockey tournament against the Western Province and Boland. Here Namibia’s Under 15 and Under 18 girls won gold medals, while the Under 18 boys won the silver medal after losing 3-1 to Western Province in the final.

Zimbabwe win Hockey Challenge

In August, Zimbabwe comfortably won the Momentum International Hockey Challenge in Windhoek after winning five of the seven categories that they contested against Namibia. The only two age groups that Namibia won were the Girls Under 18 and the Boys Under 14 categories.

Zimbabwe A comfortably won the Under 14 Girls competition, winning all four their matches and scoring 15 goals in the process.

Namibia won the Under 14 Boys category after winning two matches and drawing against Zimbabwe, while Namibia B caused an upset by holding Zimbabwe to a one-all draw.

Zimbabwe A dominated the Girls Under 16 category, winning all four their matches and scoring 15 goals without reply.

Zimbabwe won the Under 16 Boys category with two wins and a draw against Namibia.

Zimbabwe overwhelmed Namibia 6-0 in the opening match, but Namibia improved as the tournament progressed, losing the second encounter 3-0 and then holding Zimbabwe to a 1-1 draw on the final day.

Namibia won the Under 18 Girls category after winning three and drawing one of their four matches. They were held to a 2-2 draw by Zimbabwe in their opening match but then beat Zimbabwe 1-0 in their second encounter.

Zimbabwe won the Boys Under 18 category but were pushed all the way by Namibia.

Zimbabwe beat Namibia 3-2 in their first match, but Namibia turned the tables in the return match with a 4-3 victory. Namibia however also lost one match to Zimbabwe B, as Zimbabwe A went on to win the category by a single point.

Zimbabwe won the Senior Men’s category after thrilling the spectators with some great ball skills throughout the tournament, and although Namibia A did well to hold them to a goalless draw in their first encounter, Zimbabwe won the second match 2-0 to wrap up the series.

Namibia prepares for World Indoor Championships

The Namibia Hockey Union meanwhile is hard at work preparing for the World Indoor Championships in Poznan, Poland from 8-13 February next year. Namibia qualified for the World Championships when the other African countries failed to compete in the African qualifiers that were scheduled to take place in Namibia.

The Namibia Hockey Union acquired the services of a German coach Wolfgang Kluth who helped prepare Namibia for the World Cup as an advisor to the national men’s coach Randy Slabbert and the national women’s coach Trevor Cormack. Kluth spent some time with the national teams in Namibia during November and then took two of Namibia’s top players goalie DJ Strauss and striker Siabonga Martins to play for his club Rotweiss Koln.

Namibia were due to play several friendly matches in South Africa in December as part of the World Cup build up as well as in Germany in January.