Volleyball

The Bank Windhoek National Volleyball Ladies League will fully kick off the 2013 season on Saturday, 18 May at the DTS Hall in Windhoek.

The first game of the year was played in Grootfontein on 27 April 2013, and saw EWVC coming out victorious against DTS, 3:1.

Four games will be played in the Ladies League, with last year’s winners, NDF ladies considered the top favourite in the league.

The ladies of the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) and Khomas Nampol VC (KNVC) will play against Revivals VC and Sport Club Windhoek (SKW) respectively.

Namibia’s men and women’s teams both qualified for the Under 21 World Beach Volleyball Cup after progressing from the African U21 Beach Volleyball qualifying competition that took place in Windhoek over the weekend.

Namibia’s women’s team of Maike Brandt and Mareike Talkenberg remained unbeaten throughout the tournament to take the top spot, while the Namibian men’s team of Gerald Fischer and Tin Hlupic clinched the third and final qualifying spot behind the winners Burundi and second placed Egypt.

The Namibian U21 beach volleyball players are likely to qualify for this year’s Junior World Championships that will be hosted by Croatia in June.

This weekend, a qualifying tournament for ten African countries was scheduled to take place at DTS in Windhoek. According to event organiser Heiko Kesselmann, however, it has transpired that only five countries will fight it out for the three tickets available in each of the men and women’s categories.

Joseph Amakali and Rehabeam Hengari are the new Bank Windhoek Namibian Open Beach Volleyball champions.

The two indoor specialists from the Namibian Police managed to pull off a surprise over the weekend at the Mole in Swakopmund, where they outclassed the top seeded junior national players, Gerard Fischer and Tin Hlupic, 21-19, 22-24, 15-11.

Amakali and Hengari had won only two of their four matches in the group stage that was played in a round robin system with five teams.

The Namibian Volleyball Federation (NVF) will start its Indoor Volleyball season with the Doc Tournament, to be sponsored by Solar Age Namibia, in Walvis Bay at the end of March.

Solar Age Namibia recently completed the ecologically future oriented N$3,5 million solar project on the roof of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism buildings, but is also helping low budget farmers in the remote areas with small solar plants for the basic supply of electricity.

With a sponsorship of N$30 000 to the Namibian Volleyball Federation (NVF) to host the Bank Windhoek Namibian Open Beach Volleyball Championships, sport fans can look forward to some great action at the Mole in Swakopmund.

The tournament will take place during the Independence weekend on 22-23 March 2013, while a coaching clinic for beginners and youth will take place on 21 March.

Teams will compete in three categories, namely the Men, Women’s and Youth categories.

The first tournament of the Maerua Superspar Beach Volleyball Series 2013 took place at the DTS club in Olympia on Saturday, 2 March, with a total of 38 teams participating in five different categories.

The upcoming youngsters Gerard Fischer and Tin Hlupic managed to grab their first career title in the men’s competition that saw eight teams squaring off in the double elimination format.

In a closely contested final over three sets the two junior national players beat the number one seeded Peter Brinkmann and Achim Lück 2-1. Heiko Diehl and Nicolai Gilck claimed third place.

Namibia dominated the Youth & Junior Zone VI Qualification Tournament which took place at the DTS Club in Windhoek last weekend.

Only Zimbabwe and Swaziland as well as hosts Namibia managed to take part in the competition which resulted in all countries qualifying for the next round to be held next month, where the qualified countries from Zone V and Zone VII will join Namibia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

Five countries have confirmed participation in the Zone VI Beach Volleyball Qualification Tournament for the Youth & Junior categories this weekend in Windhoek at DTS Beach Volleyball Arena.

Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, South Africa and Namibia as host will take part in the U21 & U18 zonal double gender qualification tournament for the World Cup.

The best four teams will qualify for the next round taking place in March/April.

Namibia is taking part with their top junior players Tin Hlupic and Gerard Fischer, who have already got a bagful of experience from last years' World Cup.

The seventh and final tournament of this year’s DTS Maerua Superspar Volleyball Series took place on Saturday with seven 4-a-side teams, nine junior girls teams, six women’s teams and 18 individual players participating in very hot weather conditions.

A delegation of five teams from Zimbabwe, (one women, one men and three junior girls teams) also participated to add some spice to the tournament.

The Junior Women’s category, sponsored by Windhoek Canopy Centre, had six local teams and three teams from Zimbabwe taking part.