Team Namibia departs for Youth Games

A Namibian team of 77 athletes and 38 officials left for Maseru, Lesotho yesterday to compete at the ninth edition of the African Union Sports Council Region 5 Youth Games from 3 to 12 December.

The Namibian team will compete in five sport codes namely athletics (able bodied and visually impaired athletes), boxing and swimming, and two womens team sports, namely football and volleyball.

Besides the athletes, the team also includes eight delegates, five signatories, 13 technical officials, two volunteers, five drivers and three journalists for a total of 151.

At a press conference yesterday, the team received its national colours from Minister of Sport, Agnes Tjongarero, while some of the other officials in attendance included the chief administrator and vice chairperson of the Namibia Sport Commission, Freddy Mwiya and Joel Mathews respectively, the executive director of sport Audrin Mathe, the acting director of sport Jo-Ann Manuel and the NSC PRO Chalo Chainda.

Manuel said that the womens team left on Friday and had already arrived safely in Maseru, while the rest of the team was due to leave last night and arrive tonight in the Lesotho capital.

Tjongarero said that the team was well represented across the country.

“Twelve of Namibias 14 regions are represented in the team with the only regions that are not there being Zambezi and Kunene, but hopefully we will have all 14 regions next time,” she said.

“The team was already selected at the MTC Youth Games in Rietfontein last December, but we had a challenge in terms of Covid-19 this year, we could not do contact sport and schools were closed early on. So we only have two team codes competing and our preparations were maybe not sufficient, but we are from the Land of the Brave and Im sure the athletes will make their country proud,” she added.

Tjongarero said her ministry was responsible for the expenditure of the team and called on the private sector for financial assistance so that they can send a bigger team in future. Addressing the athletes, she encouraged them to keep on working hard to reach their goals.

“Just do your best and continue to work hard towards achieving your goals. If you do that you will be selected until you represent Namibia at the highest level,” she said, adding:

“We are expecting silverware, but if you cant win now, there is always a next time.”

Further withdrawals from football competition

The Confederation of Southern Africa Football Associations, Cosafa, meanwhile, announced yesterday that the emergence of the Omicrom variant had led to further withdrawals and changes to the football fixtures.

“The emergence of the Omicron variant and subsequent travel difficulties associated with it have forced another change to the fixtures for the boys and girls football competitions at the Region 5 Games Maseru 2020,” it said.

“The tournaments have already been hit by a number of withdrawals, with Seychelles (boys) and Comoros (girls) the latest to pull out over travel issues.

It means both competitions have been shortened, with the boys to run from 1 to 7 December and the girls from 2 to 6 December.”

The Boys competition now has seven teams, competing in two groups.

Group A consists of Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho and Zambia, while Group B consists of Botswana, Malawi and Angola.

The girls competition is now a single four-team pool with the tournament to be played on a round-robin format where each nation meets the other. The side that finishes on top of the group will be declared the champions.

The competing teams are Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

South Africa and Mauritius already withdrew last week, with South Africa citing the late return of amateur football in the country in October due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which made it difficult for coaches to scout players and put together teams for the trip to Maseru.

Mauritius pulled out due to a tightening of Covid-19 regulations in the country, which includes a halt to football activities.