Archive - Jun 25, 2009 - Story

Rugby, soccer and motocross tops the weekend’s sporting action with the Cell One NFA Cup final and Namibia’s Rugby World Cup qualifier against the Ivory Coast both scheduled to take place on Saturday. Motocross fans are also in for a feast as the top riders on the continent will battle it out for honours at the Full Throttle AMU MX-Championship of African Nations at the Gallina track outside Windhoek.

Saturday’s Cell One NFA Cup final between Orlando Pirates and Eleven Arrows is under threat after Ramblers lodged an appeal against Pirates for using a suspended player in their 3-2 semifinal victory on May 30.

The player at the centre of the storm is Pirates defender and assistant coach Mohammed Ouseb, who was ordered off the bench during Pirates’ quarterfinal victory against African Stars.

Ouseb was asked to leave the technical area by the referee, which according to Ramblers’ chairman Harald Hecht was the same as a red card.

Marc Bassingthwaighte underlined his status as Namibia’s top mountain bike rider when he won the National Cross Country Championships which took place close to Von Bach Dam on Sunday. Bassingthwaighte, who won the South African Cross Country Cup Series last month, finished the six-lap event more than five minutes ahead of second placed Arno Viljoen.

The race started at a gruelling pace and at the end of the first lap Bassingthwaighte held a narrow lead over Mannie Heymans. Halfway into the second lap, Heymans however had a bad fall and broke his elbow, which required surgery.

Jacky Bock has replaced Godwin Walters at flyhalf for Saturday’s Rugby World Cup qualifying match against the Ivory Coast in Windhoek. According to Namibian coach John Williams, Walters has still not recovered from a thigh injury which he suffered in the first leg match against the Ivory Coast in Abidjan, with the result that Bock has been called up from the bench to take over at flyhalf.