Archive - 2010 - Story

Boxing grows from strength to strength

Boxing in Namibia continued to grow from strength to strength during 2010 with some exceptional achievements both at amateur as well as professional level.

In April, Namibia’s senior amateur team underlined its dominance in the Southern African region when it won the African Boxing Confederation Zone 6 Championships in Johannesburg, South Africa. They won the championships with a total of 27 points, followed by Botswana (26) and South Africa (13).

A great comeback for Namibian cricket

When Namibian cricket started 2010 on the back of a comprehensive defeat to the United Arab Emirates in the ICC Intercontinental Shield competition, the outlook was glum and few people could have foreseen the success that would lie in store. But the national team turned their performance around with commanding victories against Bermuda and Uganda, before going on to beat UAE on their home turf in Dubai to win the ICC Intercontinental Shield final in December.

2010 saw the Namibian Welwitschias win the IRB Nations Cup for the first time in history after maintaining a 100 percent winning record in Bucharest, Romania in June.

They beat, Romania in their opening match 21-17, in their second match they beat Scotland A 23-20.

On the final day of the tournament Italy A needed to win against the hosts for them to take home the title but lost out to Romania 27-22 to hand the Namibians, who were playing against Georgia on the same day, the trophy.

Mixed results for Namibian hockey

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.

Consolidation phase for Athletics Namibia

Athletics in Namibia went through a consolidation phase in 2010 with little success on the international stage, but with some new talents emerging for the future.

Namibia sent a team of seven athletes to the African Athletics Championships in Nairobi, Kenya from 28 July to 1 August.

Namibian junior cricket teams did not fare too well in tournaments in South Africa during December. The national Under 19 team could only win one match out of five at the U19 Coca Cola Khaya Majola Week which took place in Bloemfontein. Namibia’s U15 team competed against South African provinces in Port Elizabeth where they won one match and lost three, while a fifth match was rained out.

At the Khaya Majola Week, Namibia recorded its only victory against South Western Districts on the opening day of the tournament on December 17.

Namibia’s five swimmers who competed at the World Swimming Championships in Dubai established a total of 7 Namibian Open and 7 Namibian Age Group records while they all ranked among the top five African swimmers in selected events.

The 18-year-old breaststroke swimmer Daniela Lindemeier set new 17/18 Year Age Group and Open records in each event that she competed in.

In the 50m breaststroke she set a new record of 33,85 seconds which bettered her own Age Group record of 34,34 as well as Jonay Briedenhann’s Open record of 34,22. With this time she was ranked second in Africa.

With 2010 coming to a close, Namibia Sport will bring you reviews of all of Namibia’s major sport codes over the next few days.

Now we take a look at rugby and the fortunes of the Namibian rugby team, the Welwitschias.

Namibia create history

Namibia created history in November 2009 when they qualified for their fourth successive Rugby World Cup, after beating Tunisia 40-23 on aggregate.

Namibian Under 20 midfielder and captain Sydney Urikhob has been selected to the Metropolitan Cosafa Under 20 team of the tournament that was selected on completion of the championships. Despite reaching the finals of the tournament for the first time in their history, where they lost 4-1 to Zambia, Urikhob is the only Namibian player in the team that was selected by Cosafa officials.

Namibian coach Ricardo Mannetti was also selected as assistant coach to the Cosafa U20 squad.

With 2010 coming to a close, Namibia Sport will bring you reviews of all of Namibia’s major sport codes over the next few days. We start off with soccer, and take a look at the Brave Warriors’ fortunes during 2010.

A promising start deteriorates

A year that started off so promisingly with a 1-1 draw against South Africa, ended in failure when the Brave Warriors lost 3-1 to Gambia, to seriously dent their chances of qualifying for the 2012 African Cup of Nations finals.