editor's blog

The Brave Warriors’ new coach Roger Palmgren ruffled a few feathers this week when he said that the Brave Warriors’ fitness levels were a disgrace.

He was referring to a test done by a biokineticist on the national squad’s players in March before Namibia’s World Cup qualifier that they lost to Malawi.

Rugby starts its 2015 World Cup preparations in earnest on May 3 when the Welwitschias take on the South African Universities in Windhoek.

It will be the first real test for the Welwitschias after they ran up cricket scores against regional teams in the Navachab Cup competition, and should give a fair indication of Namibia’s preparedness for the Africa Group 1B World Cup qualifiers in Senegal in June.

The hunt for the Brave Warriors new coach continues, with NFA secretary general Barry Rukoro saying that more than 200 people have applied for the job.

He added that no local coaches had applied, but this is not surprising since he was previously quoted as saying that they would not recruit a local coach, since they needed someone ‘with the right tactical sense who can produce results.’

This was confirmed to me by a top local coach who said ‘why should we apply when Barry made it clear that they want a foreign coach.’

Events over the past fortnight got me thinking about the success of boxing in Namibia and the failure of soccer.

Last Saturday, Namibia produced two more boxing champions, as Joseph Hilongwa won the WBF Intercontinental Super Flyweight title while Albinus Felesianu won the IBF Youth Featherweight title. This followed after the recent success of Paulus Ambunda in winning the WBO bantamweight world title.

A week earlier, however, the Brave Warriors stumbled to an embarrassing defeat against Malawi that effectively derailed their 2014 FIFA World Cup campaign.

Namibia’s cricket team has been out of its depth on the playing field this season as coach Doug Watson’s young squad has struggled in the Cricket South Africa provincial league.

After 11 matches, Namibia is bottom of the log after losing seven and drawing four matches, but of especial concern is the manner of defeat - in their last two matches they have been thrashed - losing by an innings and 119 and an innings and 114 runs respectively.

It was an uncomfortable question to ask at an event honouring our latest world champion, Paulus Ambunda.

We had all arrived at Minister Jerry Ekandjo’s office to witness a courtesy call by Nestor Tobias, Ambunda, and other boxers Tyson Ushona and Vikapita Meroro.

Minister Ekandjo congratulated all the boxers, and glowed with joy when he spoke to Ambunda, praising him on his magnificent performance.

On a great day of soccer at the Sam Nujoma Stadium on January 19, African Stars and Black Africa continued their rivalry for the 2013 league title with two brilliant displays.

In the early game of the double-header Black Africa swept Mighty Gunners aside with a 4-0 victory.

Roger Katjiteo gave them the lead after barely two minutes and from then on it was one-way traffic as players like Eslin Kamuhanga, Bryan Bantam and Willy Stephanus took Gunners apart, with their pinpoint passes and high-tempo game.

Spain won the Windhoek Lager Tri-Nations series after beating Namibia 38-37 in the final match on November 17, but despite the defeat, Namibia can look forward to 2013 with renewed hope.

It was a match that Namibia should have won, after leading 26-17 at halftime, but poor options and some poor defence saw them losing in the end. Two of Spain’s tries came from missed tackles and poor options, as Namibia tried to attack from behind their own tryline, leading captain PJ van Lill to rebuke some of the new players in the squad for their lack of big match temperament.

I had the honour to accompany Team Namibia to the London Olympic Games and what a privilege it was.

The world watched in awe as the Olympics took centre stage and the athletes lived up to the billing, as 30 new world records and 66 Olympic records were established.

Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian in history with an incredible 18 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals, while Usain Bolt became a ‘living legend’ by becoming the first sprinter to win the 100m and 200m at successive Olympics.

Black Africa striker Jerome Louis capped a great season by winning our FNB Player of the Season award after he received the most votes from our panel of judges, made up of the Premier League coaches and you, the readers of Namibia Sport.

Louis helped Black Africa win the Namibia Premier League title for the second year in a row while he finished as joint top goalscorer with 12 goals alongside Richard Kavendji of Hotspurs.