Wrestlers enjoy winter championships with Botswana as guest

The Namibia Wrestling Federation (NWF) hosted its annual Winter Championships on Saturday at the Khomasdal After-School Care Centre. The competition was conducted in the Free Style category and participants ranged from the ages of 6 to 34 years. Botswana attended the competition as a guest with a delegation of 15 wrestlers on invitation by the NWF. NWF usually has five clubs partaking in the event and they are the After-School Wrestling Club, Usakos Wrestling Club, Alte Feste, the Otjiwarongo and Windhoek Afrikaanse Private (WAP) Wrestling Club. Unfortunately this year, Otjiwarongo and WAP Wrestling Club did not compete because most of their wrestlers fell ill during the cold weeks before the competition. Speaking on the sidelines of the event, NWF president Lukas Maree said the wrestling federations of Namibia and Botswana have agreed to support each other in the growth of the sport, noting that the agreement could be the beginning of the rise of wrestling as a super sport in Southern Africa. Botswana Wrestling Federation (BWF) president, Moagi Sharp told Nampa he was pleased to see his wrestlers compete well with their counterparts on Saturday. “Wrestling in Botswana is not big and I am very pleased to have come to Namibia to partake in their winter championships, because we learned a lot from being here. “I hope this will become an annual event between the two countries, as we have a lot to learn from each other, especially since Namibia has the facilities that we are actually struggling to get at home,” said Sharp. The After-School Wrestling Club again dominated the competition with a total of 20 gold medals, while Usakos Wrestling Club came in at second place with 10 gold medals. The guest wrestling team from Botswana came third after they managed to snatch two gold medals from their Namibian counterparts. Alte Feste only managed to win one gold medal. Wrestlers who were impressive at the championship included Angula Shikongo, Lukas Thomas and Jason Afrikaner, who were granted Olympic Scholarships at the beginning of June this year to train at a High Performance Centre abroad. Other wrestlers who also impressed facilitators on the day were Sem Shilimela, who participated at the 2012 Olympic Games and Werner !Kharuxab. -Nampa WINDHOEK–HESRON KAPANGA