Fistball

SFC and Cohen FC were the winners of the A and B Categories of the Bank Windhoek Fistball Cup held in Swakopmund recently.

SFC won all their matches on their way to the final with the help of former German U21 international and current German Bundesliga player, Nick Trinemeier.

SFC beat the Bank Windhoek National League A champions, SKW 1, in the final to lift the winners’ trophy.

In the final of the B-Category, defending champions, Cohen FC kept a clean sheet in the run up to the final.

The Bank Windhoek Fistball Cup tournament will kick off on Saturday, 22 October in Swakopmund. This will be the last fistball event taking place in Namibia for the eventful and exciting 2011 season.

The games will start at 08h30 at the SFC Sports Ground. The teams will participate in two categories with the more advanced sides taking each other on in Category A, while the other teams compete in Category B.

Things did not go the way of the favourites at the play-offs of the 2011 Bank Windhoek National Fistball League. After trailing their rivals for much of the season, SKW 1 won the Bank Windhoek National A league, while Cohen FC 3 took the honours in the Bank Windhoek National B league.

The final match of the Bank Windhoek National A league was an all SKW affair. After finishing first in the preliminary round, SKW 2 had qualified for the final automatically, while SKW 1 had to play Cohen FC (CFC) 1 in a semi-final.

The Bank Windhoek Fistball league champion will be crowned this weekend with the decisive games taking place at the SKW Sport Grounds on Saturday, 24 September.

The day’s play will kick off at 8h00 when teams from the Bank Windhoek National League A and B will be in action.

These leagues are decided on a play-off system where the second and third placed teams on the log, after four round of games in the respective league, play a semi-final to determine the team that will take on the first placed team in a do or die match for the title.

The Namibian Fistball National Team finished eighth at the Fistball World Cup held in Austria after they lost 3-0 to Italy on Saturday afternoon.
 
The road to eighth place
 
Namibia played a quarter final against Brazil on Thursday evening after finishing first in their preliminary group ahead of Italy.


The game was a clear-cut affair with Brazil walking of the field with a comprehensive 3-0 victory.

Namibia never stood a chance against the World Cup hopefuls who presented their strongest line up in this World Cup quarterfinal match.

The Namibian Fistball team enjoyed another successful day at the Fistball World Cup on Tuesday after recording two victories against the Czech Republic and Italy in Kremsmunster.

Namibia recorded a convincing 3-0 win against in their first ever international event against the Czech Republic.

Michael Baas troubled the Eastern Europeans with his well placed serves while Christoph Kubirske gave another brilliant performance at the net were he troubled the opponents.

On Monday evening, Namibia beat the USA in straight sets at the Fistball World Cup in Vienna, Austria. The starting team consisted of Michael Baas Christoph Kubirske, Michael Zimny, Olaf Haase and Mark Roesener.

Namibia got off to a good start and immediately piled on the pressure on a gutsy USA team to win the first set convincingly, 11-3.

The next set went the same way as the USA could not counter the well placed spikes by Namibia’s captain Christoph Kubirske, as Namibia took the set 11-5.

Namibia were demoted to the Bottom 6 Group of the Fistball World Cup after losing 3-0 to Argentina in Vienna on Monday.

  
Argentina started the game as clear favourites in pouring rain. They were confident of a win and left their playmaker, world class Spiker Martin Vasques off the game sheet.

The conditions favoured the spikers of both teams from the service and this showed as Namibia’s Michael Baas hit one ace after the other. Argentina’s spikers did the same and no free flowing game developed.

Namibia started of their campaign at the Fistball World Championship with a 3-0 straight sets win against Serbia. The opening game of the World Cup between the two nations was also the first time they met on the field of play.
 
Coach Christian Schluep sent on Christoph Kubirske (captain) and Michael Baas as Spikers while Olaf Haase, Mark Roesener and Christian Knobloch played in defence.

He introduced no substitutes during the game which Namibia comfortably won 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-7).

Namibia will send a men’s team to participate at the 13th Fistball World Cup in Vienna, Austria from 7 to 14 August.

The captain of the team, Christof Kubirske said the team would leave Namibia at the end of July.

“We will leave Namibia on the 28th of July and our first stop will be Jona, Switzerland where we will have a week long training camp,” Kubirske said.

The Namibian team coach, Stefan Groegli explained what the week in Jona will have in store for the team.

“This will be a tough week in which we will try and prepare the team as best as possible,” Groegli said.