Namibia win six medals in Zimbabwe

Namibia’s junior hockey teams won six medals at the Zimbabwe Junior Hockey Series that was concluded in Harare over the weekend.

Namibia’s u13 boys team led the way with a gold medal, while the u13 girls and u16 boys teams both won silver medals; and the u16 girls, u18 boys and u18 girls all won bronze medals.

The tournament saw several southern African countries competing in the three age groups with South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe competing in the main draw, while Eswatini, Botswana and Zambia mostly competed in a developmental tournament.

Namibia also won numerous individual awards in most of the age group categories, but South Africa dominated the tournament, winning four gold medals in the u18 boys and girls and under 16 boys and girls categories, while Zimbabwe won the u13 girls category.

The president of the Namibia Hockey Union, Carin Slabbert said Namibia’s teams were hampered by a few late withdrawals and injuries.

“Overall I’m quite happy with our performances – we were competitive throughout and our players did very well in the individual awards, while we got several top goal scorers in the various age groups,” she said.

“But I’m also disappointed that we had some late withdrawals that affected our performances. Sienna Richards, who recently played for the senior national women’s side against South Africa was a late withdrawal after falling ill, while another senior national player Oyo Hinda had to withdraw at the last minute due to injury. Then our top u18 goal scorer Archie Graham could not play one match after getting injured due to a terrible tackle,” she added.

“Our u13 boys did very well and I think our u13 girls were very unlucky not to win the gold medal – they had so many scoring chances in the final, but could not take them and ended up losing 1-0 to Zimbabwe,” she said.

Namibia’s u13 boys team, coached by David Britz, led the way with an unbeaten run throughout the tournament. In the group stages they beat Zimbabwe B 7-0, Zimbabwe A 3-0 and Eswatini A 1-0, before once again beating Zimbabwe A 4-1 in the final.

Dian Kotze won the u13 boys player of the tournament award, while Samuel Graham won the top goal scorer award.

Namibia’s u13 girls team won the silver medal after losing 1-0 to Zimbabwe in the final.

They had earlier drawn 0-0 against Zimbabwe during the group stages, while they also beat Zimbabwe B 3-0 and Eswatini A 6-0.

Namibian captain Izobelle Basson won the player of the tournament award while Paris Vleermuis was the top goal scorer.

In the u16 boys category Namibia won the silver medal after finishing behind South Africa B.

They won two of their group matches against Zimbabwe A 4-2 and Zimbabwe B 6-2, but lost 6-3 to SA B.

Namibia’s Max Fourie was the top goal scorer, while JC le Roux won the top goalkeeper award.

In the u16 girls category Namibia won the bronze medal, with SA B winning the gold medal and Zimbabwe A the silver medal.

Namibia beat Zimbabwe B 3-1, drew 0-0 against Zimbabwe A, and lost 3-0 to SA B.

In the u18 boys category, Namibia won the bronze medal after losing 4-3 to Zimbabwe A; 5-1 to SA u17 A; and drawing 4-4 against SA u16 A.

SA u17 won the gld medal and SA u16 the silver medal, while Namibia’s Archie Graham won the top goal scorer of the tournament award.

Namibia won another bronze medal in the girls u18 category, with South Africa u17 A winning the gold medal and SA u16 A the silver medal.

In their group matches, Namibia beat Zimbabwe A 3-2, but lost to SA u17 (1-0) and SA u16 (3-1).

Namibia’s Tamara Grogli won the top goalscorer award.

Slabbert, meanwhile, said that Namibia will host the series next year.

“Years ago we had a tri-nations series between Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana and competed against them on a regular basis, but that died out.

Then last year Zimbabwe travelled to South Africa with a few junior teams, while they have now hosted some more nations in this year’s tournament. The aim is to revive the junior series and Namibia will host it next year,” she said.