Archive - 2009 - Story

Namibia’s Under 17 women’s cricket team made history on December 9 when they won their first match at the Northerns U17 Girls’ Cricket Festival in Pretoria. It was the first victory by a Namibia’s women’s team, after women’s cricket in Namibia was launched earlier in the year.

Namibia won in great style, beating North West by 102 runs after a fine performance by their batsmen. Carmen Liebenberg top scored with 83 runs off 101 balls, while Anneri van Schoor scored 40 off 40 balls, Carmel Donn 41 off 38 balls and Sune Wittmann 22 off 8 balls.

Telecom Namibia announced a sponsorship of N$250 000 for boxing on Monday, ahead of the National Amateur Boxing Championships which are scheduled to take place at the A Shipena School Hall from Thursday to Saturday. Under the terms of the agreement, Telecom Namibia will be the exclusive sponsor of the Namibia Boxing Federation until July 2010, with an option to renew the contract for a further two-year period.

The acting managing director of Telecom Namibia, Wessel van de Vyver said they supported boxing because they believed that Namibians could excel in this code.

Micaela Cloete of Namib Swimming Academy excelled at the Northern Tigers Swimming Championships in Pretoria recently. The 13-year-old Cloete won two gold, one silver and one bronze medal competing against some of the top swimmers in South Africa.

Competing in the girls 12-13 year age group, Cloete won gold medals in the 50m butterfly in a time of 31,58 seconds and the 50m freestyle in a time of 28,62 seconds, which was just outside Corinna Wahl’s national age group record of 28,50 seconds.

The first games of this year’s Otjozundjupa Second Division were played on December 12 and 13 with games being played in Otjiwarongo and Grootfontein. Matches scheduled for Otavi were however postponed.

On Saturday, African Lions took on Silent Killers FC at the Paresis Sports Grounds. African Lions were far too strong for Silent Killers as they streaked into a 7-1 lead at halftime. Silent Killers played a much stronger second half, but eventually lost the game 9-2.

Namibia Football Association President John Muinjo believes Namibia’s chances of attracting 2010 FIFA World Cup finalists for training camps are close to zero following his return from the final draw in Cape Town recently.

In his report on the progress towards luring qualified nations to camp in Namibia before heading for the finals, Muinjo bemoaned the lack of international standard facilities in Namibia from stadiums to the hospitality industry.

Blue Waters beat cross-town rivals Eleven Arrows 1-0 in a hard fought derby at Kuisebmond Stadium on Sunday to move up to fourth position on the log and within striking distance of the leaders.

Blue Waters midfielder Wycliffe Kambonde scored the only goal after about 15m and although Arrows attacked relentlessly in the second half, they could not break down the Birds’ defence.

The victory saw Blue Waters moving up to fourth position on 20 points – now only four points behind log leaders African Stars.

UAE beat Namibia by 20 runs in their second One Day International on Friday to win the series 2-0.

UAE batted first and scored a competitive 271 off their 50 overs at an average of 5,5 runs per over.

Pieter Rossouw dismissed UAE opener Mohammed Iqbal for 18, while Tobie Verwey ran out Amjad Ali for 16, to leave the visitors at 38/2.

Arshad Ali and Saqib Ali however steadied the innings with a 56-run partnership before Saqib was out stumped off Nicolaas Scholtz’ bowling for 30.

There were no goals, as Orlando Pirates and Black Africa played out to a goalless draw on Friday night, but the traditional Katutura derby once again delivered a lot of passion and excitement for the 4 000 fans in attendance.

There was lots of drama on the field as both sides had numerous scoring opportunities, while Black Africa midfielder Eliphas Heita was red carded for a foul on Ivan Makina midway through the second half. Despite being a man down, BA remained dangerous on the counterattack and strikers Roger Katjiteo and Jerome Louis both had goals disallowed.

Black Africa and Orlando Pirates are expected to come out firing in their Katutura derby on Friday night as a win for either team will put them on top of the MTC Premiership.

African Stars regained the lead on 24 points when they beat Hotspurs 4-2 on Wednesday night, but second placed Pirates on 23 points and third placed Black Africa on 21 points can regain the lead if they win Friday’s derby.

SKW and Tigers played to an uneventful goalless draw at the SKW field on Thursday night. Chances were few and far between as most of the play took place in the centre of the park.

SKW tried some speculative long range efforts in the first half but their best chance came just before the break when Gustav Isaack stabbed a Pitzi Eichorn centre inches wide of the goals.