The Tafel Lager Brave Warriors gave a great performance to hold South Africa to a 1-1 draw in Durban on March 3.
Rudolph Bester momentarily shocked the 50 000 fans into silence when he put Namibia ahead just before halftime, but South Africa equalised through Katlego Mphela midway through the second half.
Despite constant pressure by Bafana Bafana, Namibia managed to hold out for a draw, which was a great result, considering that South Africa had beaten Zimbabwe 3-0 and Swaziland 6-2 in two previous friendlies.
“South Africa is our big brother, but we showed today that we are the same size as them and I am a satisfied coach,” Tom Saintfiet said after the match.
Unfortunately all the good work was undone when the home-based Brave Warriors crashed to a 1-0 defeat against Seychelles 10 days later and drew 0-0 against Botswana on March 21. In both matches Namibia wasted golden opportunities, which clearly frustrated Saintfiet.
“If you get such big chances and you don’t score them, then you will not beat the Seychelles, Botswana or anyone else,” he said and Namibia will now certainly face a tough battle in the return leg match against the Seychelles.
In gymnastics, Robert Honiball and Kimberly Ann van Zyl did their country proud when they won gold medals at the African Gymnastic Championships in Walvis Bay. Both gymnasts had suffered numerous setbacks over the years, through injuries and bad luck, but they persevered and finally reached the pinnacle of their careers. For Van Zyl’s coach Juliana Simonfi it was also a great achievement – her first gold medal at a continental championships since she became Namibia’s national coach in 1993.
Namibian boxing continues to improve as Vikapita Meroro last month became our latest continental champion when he beat Douglas Otieno of Kenya to win the WBO African light heavyweight title.
Meroro joins Tyson Uushona, who retained his WBA African welterweight title in an exciting fight against Tommy Hango, and Namibia’s WBO African bantamweight champion, Paulus Ambunda who knocked out his South African opponent, Sithembele Kibiti in the first round.
Namibia’s other African champions are Ali Nuumbembe, who holds the WBO African welterweight title and Martin Haikali who holds the WBO African lightweight title, while Paulus Moses, of course, is the WBA lightweight world champion.
March also saw good performances by the national women’s soccer team who beat Angola 3-2 on aggregate to progress to the final round of the African Championships qualifiers, and our girls Under 17 national hockey team who won a silver medal at the African Youth Olympics qualifying competition.
Namibia’s rugby and cricket sides struggled in their respective South African competitions, but both are playing against top class opposition and gaining invaluable experience. After losing their opening three matches in the tough Vodacom Cup competition, the rugby side finally showed their true potential when they thrashed the Falcons 66-35 on March 19.
There is much more to read in this issue, ranging from the FIFA World Cup countdown and the Leo NFA Cup to the launch of Cricket Namibia’s latest development project, Kwata Cricket, while we also have our regular columns on Sport Science, Local Shorts and the MTC Player of the Month competition.
Helge Schutz
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