Junior men's team fifth at World Cup

Fistball
Both the Namibian women's team (eighth) and the junior men (fifth) excelled in the sport's elite competition.
  • 1 Month Ago 20 November 2024
Namibia’s junior boys fistball team took a sensational fifth place at the recent under-18 World Cup hosted in Llanquihue, Chile.

After a 10-year absence, a Namibian youth team took part in a U18 world championship again – with three tough encounters waiting on the first day.

In the opening match, the juniors played against the eventual beaten finalist Brazil and lost by three sets to nil. Next up, the Namibians regrouped well to impressively beat Denmark three-nil.

In the evening’s match three against the hosts Chile, the young Namibians took a comfortable 3-0 win, to rank behind Brazil and Austria on the group log standings after the first match-day.

On day two, Namibia faced match-ups against three giants in the fistball world – Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The ambitious youngsters lost 3-0 against both Switzerland and Austria. Against the eventual tournament winner Germany, Namibia impressed hugely by winning one set – only their second in history against Germany. Nevertheless, Namibia also lost this match 1-3.

The following day, Namibia fought its way to a 3-1 win against Argentina. Thus, Namibia finished the preliminary round in fifth place. Argentina would once again be their opponent in the fifth-place playoff.

After leading by one set to nil, the Namibians lost the next two sets. Throughout the fourth set, the Namibians were trailing by just one point. With the score at 12-12, the Namibians turned the set around and ultimately won it 14-12.

The fifth and deciding set was also not for the faint-hearted. Led by captain Dominic Egner, Namibia built up a seemingly comfortable 9-5 lead, but the Argentinians won the next four points to equalise at 9-9.

The timeout worked and Namibia added two points to win 11-9 and seal the fifth position.

Fistball Namibia is proud of its youngsters who provided a ray of hope for the sport in southern Africa.



Women’s World Cup

The Women's World Cup concluded on 10 November in Monte Carlo, Argentina. After 18 years, a Namibian women's national team competed in an international tournament again.

Due to their international inactivity, coach Olaf Beiter did not predict a target placement since the level of competition would be difficult to assess.

Namibia surprised the USA three sets to one in their opening match. A few hours later, Namibia also beat Colombia 3-0 and was already confirmed as the group winners.

In the cross-over match against the fourth-placed team from the silver group, Namibia faced Australia and maintained their momentum with a 3-0 clean sweep. The result meant that a place in the top 8 would be guaranteed.

In the quarter-final, Namibia lost 0-3 to the eventual beaten finalist Germany. In the qualifying match against Chile, Namibia also lost 3-0.

On the last match-day, Didi Foerster and Sylvia Schulz were out of contention due to injury, leaving only five players available. Their play-off for 7th place against New Zealand ended up being the women's team weakest performance of the tournament, losing 0-3. Nevertheless, the Namibian fistball community is proud of their respectable 8th-place finish.