Archive - 2011 - Story

Namibian assistant referee David Shaanika will officiate at the 2012 AFCON to be played in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea next month.

Shaanika, who had been busy throughout 2011 on CAF and FIFA assignments (course and matches), has been chosen to officiate at the AFCON next month and he expressed his satisfaction about the move by CAF.

“I am so glad that I have made this elite group of referees. It is a great honor for me and I'm looking forward to it. I will go out there and do my best”, Shaanika said.

Namibia finished third out of six nations at the inaugural ICC Africa T20 Women’s Championships in Uganda on Tuesday.

Uganda were the overall winners of the competition with 8 points from 5 matches, finishing just ahead of Tanzania on a better run rate.

Namibia won three and lost two matches to come third on 6 points, just ahead of Kenya who were also on 6 points but with an inferior run rate.

Nigeria came fifth with 2 points while Sierra Leone came last with zero points.

Namibia lost their final match against Kenya by 16 runs on Tuesday.

Brave Warriors midfielder Rudolph Bester will join the Brave Warriors squad for the international friendly match against Angola on Thursday.

Bester is expected to arrive on Tuesday afternoon and join up with the rest of the squad which will include Thailand-based Lazarus Kaimbi who joined the camp on Tuesday morning as well as Black Africa keeper Arnold Subeb, who replaced Golden Arrows keeper Virgil Vries.

Betuel “Tyson” Uushona’s IBF intercontinental welterweight title fight against Joshua Okine in January will be a great opportunity for him.

His trainer, Nestor Tobias said this about the January 20 fight that will take place in Accra, Ghana.

“Tyson currently has a good ranking in the WBO world ratings and this will be a good opportunity for him to get a good ranking in IBF also,” Tobias said.

“Its always a good idea to have ratings in two different organisations,” he added.

Uushona will be the challenger for the title currently being held by the Ghanaian.

Namibian boxers feature prominently on the latest World Boxing Organisation (WBO) world rankings which were recently released.

Namibia’s WBO African bantamweight champion Paulus Ambunda is ranked third on the bantamweight rankings and could soon be in line for a world title shot. Ambunda is still unbeaten after 17 pro fights of which 10 came via knockout.

Another Namibian bantamweight boxer Immanuel Naidjala is ranked 13th on the WBO world rankings. Naidjala, who is unbeaten after 12 pro fights is also the WBO African Interim bantamweight champion.

Blind athlete Ananias Shikongo became a Namibian sporting hero when he won a gold medal at the All Africa Games in September.

Competing in the T11 200m final, he initially finished second, a split second behind Octavio dos Santos of Angola. But later, after a review, the Angolan was disqualified since his guide had pulled him and Shikongo was declared the winner.

With this feat, Shikongo entered the record books as he became only the fourth Namibian athlete and the first since 1991 to win a gold medal at the All Africa Games.

Brave Warriors coach Bernard Kaanjuka has called up Thailand-based winger Lazarus Kaimbi to strengthen the Brave Warriors squad for their friendly match against Angola on Thursday.

Kaanjuka told Namibia Sport that Kaimbi was due to arrive in Namibia soon, but he was still awaiting confirmation of the two South African-based goalkeepers, Virgil Vries and Ephraim Tjihonge.

“I’m waiting for confirmation on our South African based goalkeepers Virgil Vries and Ephraim Tjihonge, and I’m also waiting for Lazarus Kaimbi - he left for Namibia last night to come and join us,” he said.

Griqualand West beat Namibia by four wickets in their CSA T20 match in Kimberley on Sunday.

Namibia won the toss and elected to bat but lost the wickets of Raymond van Schoor (1) and Sarel Burger (3) early on.

Craig Williams joined Ewald Steenkamp and took the score to 74 before Steenkamp was out for 36 off 35 balls.

Williams was the mainstay of Namibia’s innings and went on to score 65 off 43 balls (3x4, 6x6) before being run out in the final over as Namibia posted a total of 125 for 9 off their 20 overs.

Emiliano Ballardini of Italy won the solo category of the FNB Desert Dash in a time of 13 hours 52 minutes on Saturday.

Ballardini completed the 340km Mountain Bike Marathon from Windhoek to Swakopmund 26 minutes ahead of Trevor Seinen of South Africa, who came second in 14:18, while another South African, Uwe Schmidt came third in 14:40.

Ballardini said it was a tough course but he was happy to have won the event at his first attempt.

“It was very tough, especially the final 60km to Swakopmund where we had to ride in sandy stretches along the pipeline.”

Miguel Hamutenya, a 19-year-old Namibian soccer player signed a professional contract with Scottish football giants Glascow Rangers on Friday.

Hamutenya, who was part of the Bolton Wanderers Academy programme Edukicks for two years, attended trials with Rangers which he passed with flying colours, according to his agent Jonathan Hope.