Namibia’s inline hockey players have been in fine form at the Inline Hockey World Championship which is currently taking place in Roccaraso, Italy.
The championship already started last week with Namibia winning the bronze medal in the junior women’s category, while the senior women finished fifth.
The junior men’s category, meanwhile, started on Monday and Namibia got off to a winning start with a 6-2 victory against Korea.
In the junior women’s championship Namibia opened their campaign with two huge victories, beating Chile 15-0 and China 8-1.
Against Chile, Leighzene Coetzee led the way with six goals, while Ania Borstlap, Maja von Somnitz, Mija von Dewitz and Lana Bajorat scored two each, and Ane de Koning one goal.
Against China, Borstlap was the top scorer with four goals, while Laura Weimann added two, and Coetzee and Ane de Koning one each.
The next day, Namibia notched up another comprehensive 9-2 victory against Italy but then suffered their first defeat, losing 6-3 to the United States.
Against Italy, Borstlap and Bajorat scored two goals each, while Von Somnitz, Von Dewitz, Coetzee, De Koning and Kamogelo Dax scored one goal each.
Against the United States, Namibia showed great character to fight back from a 4-0 deficit after only 10 minutes, but it was not enough. They reduced the deficit to 4-3 midway through the second half after goals by Borstlap, Kamogelo and Coetzee, but the USA sealed the match with two late goals.
That put Namibia second in Group B and into the quarterfinals where they produced a great comeback to beat Chinese Taipei 5-4, after trailing 2-1 at halftime, with Borstlap (two), Weimann, Coetzee and De Koning scoring their goals.
Namibia, however, had no answer to Spain in the semifinals, going down 5-0 which put them into the bronze medal match against Italy. Here, Namibia once again produced a fine comeback after trailing 2-0 to tie the match at 3-3 to send the match into extra time. Borstlap, who scored all three goals, capped a great performance to also score the winning goal in extra time to give Namibia a thrilling victory and third place out of 10 competing nations.
Senior women fifth
In the senior womens category Namibia finished fifth out of 21 nations after beating Mexico 3-2 in the fifth-place play-off match on Sunday.
Leighzene Coetzee opened Namibia’s account, and although Mexico soon equalised, Christine Röttcher put them 2-1 ahead by halftime.
Another Coetzee goal put Namibia 3-1 ahead and although Mexico replied with their second goal in the final stages it was not enough as Namibia held on for a hard-fought win.
In their group matches Namibia got off to a great start on 4 September when they beat Brazil 13-1 and Chile 13-0.
Against Brazil, Röttcher led the way with four goals, while Borstlap, Von Somnitz and Weimann scored two each, and Kamogelo, Coetzee and De Koning one goal each.
Against Chile, Röttcher and Weimann scored three goals each, and Borstlap, Kamogelo, Von Somnitz, Coetzee, De Koning, Tayla de Jager and Corinna Weimann one goal each.
That put Namibia at the top of Group F and through to the quarterfinals where they lost 6-0 to the United States on 6 September. Namibia, however, beat Italy 5-1 after goals by Borstlap, Röttcher, Corinna Weimann, Coetzee and De Koning, to book their place in the fifth place play-off match.
Namibia’s junior men, meanwhile, got off to a fine start after beating South Korea 6-2 in the Junior Men Inline Hockey Championship on Monday evening.
Namibia’s goal scorers were Abe van der Merwe (two), Sean-Oliver Kirchner, Theodor Borstlap, Fabian Metz and Kyron Ihlein.
Namibia however lost 7-2 to France last night, while they complete their group stages against Chinese Taipei today.
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