Archive - Jul 11, 2012

Seasoned coach Ali Akan has been appointed as African Stars’ new coach on a one-year contract.

Akan told Namibia Sport that he signed a one-year contract with Stars on Monday, which could be extended depending on his performances with the team.

“We signed a one-year contract and if everything goes well Stars will extend the contract,” he said.

Stars had earlier tried to sign Akan but he rebuffed their initial approaches saying that it was not professionally done. Now however he was happy with the terms of the contract and did not take long to put pen to paper.

A delegation of 23 people will represent Namibia at the London Summer Olympic Games which start on July 27. This will consist of nine athletes, eight coaches who will double up as managers and six officials.

A further four Namibian delegates have been invited by the International Olympic Committee and will attend as guests of the IOC.

After having to abandon his Fish River Canyon Trail Run record attempt in 2011 due to heavy rains, Ryan Sandes will be back again at the beginning of August 2012 to hopefully defeat his long standing nemesis - breaking the record for the quickest time to run the Fish River Canyon Trail in Namibia.

The record for the 84km trail run – set in one of the harshest climates and terrains – was originally set on the 13th of July 1990 by South Africans Ronnie Muhl and Bruce Matthews – both seasoned Comrades runners – in a time of 11hrs 42min.

SKW took home another trophy when they won the annual Pennypincher Cohen Cup Fistball tournament on Saturday. They beat a team from Stellenbosch Fistball Club in the final of the competition after an eventful day of fistball.

Twelve teams had entered the tournament, with Stellenbosch being one of the favourites for the trophy.

The South African club is barely a year old but they boast quite a bit of fistball prowess with a number of former Namibian U18 national players currently studying in South Africa playing for the team.

The Namibia B team on Tuesday played to a goalless draw against Egypt Under 20 at the Accra Sports Stadium to remain unbeaten in the three-team tournament that includes host Ghana.

Assistant coach Ricardo Mannetti said it was not easy for the team to play against the tactically good Egyptian side but the boys gave a good account of themselves.

“It was not easy to play two highly ranked teams in the space of three days. Egypt packed their defense after watching our boys giving Ghana a lot of problems. They played a very cautious game,” said Mannetti via Facebook.