Tennis development bearing fruit

The Namibia Tennis Association’s development programme is starting to make an impact with some of Namibia’s top juniors now coming through the development ranks.

At a development tournament last weekend, Eros Primary School won the Under 12 and Under 14 team categories, while the BNC after school centre in Katutura dominated the Under 10 category.

About 200 children participated in the tournament at the National Tennis Stadium in Olympia, with about 100 coming from Eros Primary School, where the sport has blossomed over the last few years.

Eros teacher Ruben Kapimbi said tennis had become the most popular sport at their school, while the also praised the teachers and parents’ involvement in the sport.

“Tennis is now the most popular sport at Eros Primary School. The bus wasn’t big enough to get our children here, so we had to do two trips,” he said.

The teachers are doing a good job, while the parents’ involvement is great,” he added.

The NTA’s development officer Kallie Heese said that their development programme was starting to reap the rewards.

“FNB are sponsoring our development programme and it is now starting to reap the rewards. The programme has got different legs – the Schools Tennis Initiative, where we focus on grassroots mass participation and the Junior Tennis Initiative, where we train promising young players. We recently started the Namibia Tennis Training Centre at Eros Primary School where our top junior players receive specialised training,” he said.

According to Heese, the development programme has unearthed numerous talented young players who are now ranked amongst the top five in Namibia in their various age groups.

The include Prisca Amutale and Zakiya van Wyk (U-10 girls), Albertus Brinkman and Carlos Uirab (U-10 boys), Hendrina Appolus (U-12 girls), Diken de Jongh and Lorenzo Danster (U-12 boys), Taimi Nashiku (U-14 girls), Risto Shikongo and Yed Malan (U-14 boys) and Elias Shikongo and Ronaldo Uirab (U-18 boys).

Heese said they currently had 10 schools participating in schools tennis leagues in Windhoek, Otjiwarongo and Walvis Bay.

“I want to expand this to 20 schools in the near future so I’d like to call on schools to join our programme. Our schools leagues will start in the second term in May,” he said.

Heese can be contacted at 0812868031 or kalie@iway.na

The individual winners and runners-up at last weekend’s development programme were as follows:

U-10 Girls:

1 Prisca Amutale 2 Zakiya van Wyk

U-10 Boys:

1 Nathan Amutale 2 Barbes Damaseb

U-12 Girls:

1 Panduleni Gideon 2 Daniella Kapunda

U-12 Boys:

1 Pelso Manoah 2 Rivaldo Boois

U-14 Girls:

1 Chantelle Chinhoi 2 Emily Vlademir

U-14 Boys:

1 Steven Namgongo 2 Pepcy Frans