Namibia ready for title defence

LIMBA MUPETAMIThe Namibian men's national inline hockey team are eager and ready to defend their Africa Cup inline hockey title at The Dome in Swakopmund.At the inaugural championship event held at the same venue in 2017, the team beat Labeda Bulls - a team consisting of American, Canadian and Spanish national players with a few local men in the mix - to win the championship.In its second year, the tournament is billed as a truly international event, with players from Namibia, South Africa, Brazil, India, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Spain and Italy having confirmed their participation.Seven teams will compete in a total of 26 games. Each game will consist of a seven-minute warm-up, a five-minute halftime and two 18-minute stop time periods. All teams will play each other in the round-robin stages.“After the round-robin stages are completed, the seventh seeded team will be eliminated from the competition on Friday evening. The top four teams will move on to the semi-finals, where the winners will play for gold, and the runners-up for silver and bronze. “Seeds five and six will have a playoff contest for the fifth place,” said the tournament organiser Dave Hammond. Namibia's captain Marco Debortoli said the team has been training for the past six months and is ready to defend their title.“We have a mixture of young and more experienced players. We had three training camps towards the build up to the tournament, so the team looks ready and strong. In the past we had experienced international coaches who really helped the players.”Debortoli said further this is one of the biggest sporting events in Swakopmund and locals should turn up in numbers to support the team.Two local and three international referees will officiate the matches to maintain the world-class standard of the tournament. A two-day international referee clinic was also conducted, aimed at developing and improving the skills of local referees. Attendees were put through their paces during practical and theory sessions. The entire tournament with live commentary will be streamed by TeeVee, a local company with extensive experience in broadcasting action sports. Last year, over 8 000 online spectators tuned in, while another 800 sat ring side per day; to date, the tournament has had more than 300 000 YouTube views worldwide. “These numbers have shown us that this tournament has both local and international appeal. Bank Windhoek believes that sport brings people together and because this tournament contributes to sport and youth development in our country, we are pleased to be associated with it. “We wish all the participants the best,” said Bank Windhoek's head of corporate social investments, sponsorships and events, Sanet de Waal.The entry fee is N$50 per day or N$200 for the week and tickets are available online on TIXSA, The Dome's ticketing platform, or from the box office stationed at the event.

Namibia ready for title defence

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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Namibia ready for title defence

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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