The Namibian netball team has received mixed results in their first two matches at the Africa Qualifiers currently under way in Pretoria, South Africa. They lost their first match against Botswana 59-34 on Monday and then won their second match against Tanzania 38-28 on Tuesday.
In their match against Tanzania, the Namibians led the first quarter 8-4. The second quarter saw the Tanzanians regaining their confidence and this resulted in them taking the lead at halftime with a score of 13-17. At the end of the third quarter both teams were tied at 23 points each.
“From the start of the last quarter both teams played great netball, keeping the score even up to about ten minutes into the quarter,” Dalene Coetzee, the Secretary General of the All Namibian Netball Association (ANNA) said.
“With great netball, excellent discipline and perseverance, our girls won the game by 38-28, scoring 15 goals in the last quarter,” Coetzee added.
In the match against Botswana, the Namibians were trailing from the start of the match, and were down 11-8 at the end of the first quarter.
At the conclusion of the first half, Namibia was behind 29-17, and this continued in to the third quarter, when Botswana was leading 44-25. The final score after the last quarter was 59-34.
“Even though the Namibian team fought bravely on both the attacking and defending side, the Botswana team played an excellent game to beat Namibia,” Coetzee said.
Originally the participating countries were divided into two pools of four teams each and had to play on a round robin basis. Namibia was in a group with Uganda, Swaziland and Botswana.
Swaziland withdrew from the tournament at the last minute and Uganda arrived late for the competition due to problems with their visas.
This resulted in the organisers changing the format the competition, all teams will now have to play each other and the two best teams will qualify for the World Championships in Singapore next year.
The other countries participating in the competition are, Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Uganda and hosts South Africa.