Pirates dominate Cazadores Tournament

Coastal Pirates from Swakopmund dominated an Inline Hockey tournament presented by Cazadores Club in Windhoek from September 23 to 25.
Pirates won most of the categories contested, from the Boys Under 10 level through to the Open Men and Women?s categories. The Women?s Open category was won by Badgers of Windhoek ahead of Cazadores.
In the Under 18 category Pirates beat their closest rivals Cazadores 5-3 on September 23 and the next day once again hammered them 12-2.
In the Men?s Open category Pirates once again pipped their closest rivals Cazadores in two matches. Pirates were pushed all the way before winning the first encounbter 7-3, but they dominated the second match on September 25 from the start. By halftime Pirates had built up a 9-1 lead and they went on to win the match 12-2.
The Cazadores tournament served mainly as a development tournament after the 2005 league was concluded at the end of August. Pirates also dominated the league championships, winning the Under 10, Under 12, Under 14, Under 16, Under 18 and Men?s Open categories, while Badgers won the Women?s Open category.
Meanwhile, the president of the Namibia Inline and Ice Hockey Association (NIIHA) Tom Mutavdzic said that Namibia had made a good impression at their first World Championships in Finland in July. Namibia came 13th amongst the world?s 16 top nations to qualify automatically for the 2006 World Championships.
?We surprised a lot of nations. Even the matches that we lost, our opponents had to fight hard to win and they were surprised at our standard,? he said.
Mutavdzic paid tribute to the team?s fighting spirit, best exemplified in their 6-5 loss to Australia.
?Australia were leading 5-1 going into the final quarter, but we staged a great comeback before losing 6-5,? he said.
Namibia?s was also honoured for its exemplary discipline by winning the award for the most disciplined team.
Mutavdzic said they would prepare more intensively for the 2006 World Championships and were planning to invite Slovenia and a German invitation team to Namibia to participate in some warm-up tournaments.