Archive - Aug 2009 - Story

Namibia’s former dazzling midfielder Johannes Congo Hindjou and compatriot Lucky Kakuva leave for Germany this week to attend a coaching course in Hennef, Germany.

According toa press release issued by the NFA Secretariat, the duo will join aspiring coaches from 17 other countries including Zambia, Swaziland, South Africa and Mozambique at the International Coaching course in Hennef starting August 31 to September 18.

Namibia’s national Under 18 soccer side are in Angola for the FESA Under-20 Tournament starting on Saturday in Dundo, Lunda Norte Province. The 20-man squad left on Wednesday with two notable faces in African Stars striker Ikuaterua Tjozongoro and Hansa Rostock’s Manfred Starke.

Tjozongoro previously represented Namibia at U17 level, when Namibia played Angola in the COSAFA U17 Championships in 2007 and is keen to make an impact.

The University of Namibia (Unam) emerged victorious at the TISAN Games, winning both the men and women’s basketball titles on Monday. In the men’s final Unam comfortably beat the Institute of University Management (IUM) 102-75, while Unam won the gold medal in the women’s category, beating Polytech of Namibia 68-43.

In the men’s final, Unam streaked into an early 13-2 lead after some strong attacks by Allan Nghixulifwa and Gerard Thimende. Spurred on by veteran Corbin Prizonsky, IUM fought back and at the end of the first quarter were trailing 24-18.

Namibia’s African mountainbike champions Marc Bassingthwaighte and Heletje van Staden will participate in the World Mountain Bike Cross Country Championships which take place in Canberra, Australia at the beginning of September.

Northern Stream First Division Playoffs

Northern Steam First Division newly promoted clubs, Robber Chanties and Eleven Brothers are under no illusions of the test that awaits them, after clinching success over the weekend at Tsumeb.

Robber Chanties emerged as Group A winners, ahead of Omusati’s UNAM Ogongo and Ohangwena’s Namudjebo.

Namibian marathon runners Beata Naigambo and Helalia Johannes finished 24th and 56th respectively in the women’s marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin on Sunday. Naigambo completed the marathon in a new personal best time of 2 hours 33 minutes 5 seconds, but Johannes’ time of 2:50:19, was well below her personal best and Namibian record time of 2:32:30.

The marathon was won by Xue Bai of China in 2:25:15, with Yoshimi Ozaki of Japan second in 2:25:25 and Aselefech Mergia of Ethiopia third in 2:25:32.

Nathan Ockhuizen scored a dramatic injury time try to keep Western Suburbs’ title hopes alive with a 24-23 victory against Rehoboth at Suburbs Park. Suburbs, the defending champions seemed to be heading towards an exit from the competition as they trailed Rehoboth 23-14 with 10 minutes remaining. But they kept on pounding away at Rehoboth’s line and staged a great comeback as tries by eighthman Brandon Walters and Ockhuizen gave them a last-gasp victory.

Windhoek High School won the Super League trophy at the Metropolitan Boards Trophy finals for the third year in a row on Saturday when they beat Elnatan 18-3 in the final.

WHS seemed to be cruising to a comfortable victory when they took a 15-0 lead at halftime, but Elnatan staged a strong comeback after the break and only some resolute defence by WHS kept them out. But although the private school from Stampriet gave a courageous performance, they could not match the slick WHS side who added another chapter in the illustrious history of their school.

The Namibia Football Association on Thursday launched the NFA U/16 Youth Development Tournament to be hosted by Gobabis with a fascinating draw.

With 12 Municipal and Village Councils confirming their participation in the third edition of the development venture, the tournament was launched and the draw conducted to decide the groups.

The defending champions Ongwediva Town Council, finally joining the championships, found themselves pitted against the 2007 winner, Otjiwarongo in Group C together with Kalkrand Town Council and Okahandja municipality.

Namibian long jumper Stephan Louw failed to qualify for the finals at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany on Thursday. Competing in Group A of the first qualifying round, Louw finished 14th out of 23 athletes with a best effort of 7,74 metres.

Louw overstepped with his first jump and then cleared 7,74m and 7,69m with his next two efforts.

This was well outside the Namibian record of 8,24m that he set in Germiston, South Africa in January 2008. It was also outside his season’s best distance of 7,95m which he set in Praha, in the Czech Republic on June 8.