Home nation takes gold in Africa Cup

Inline hockey
Andrew Poolman
A triumph for the host nation's team capped the first ever Africa Cup inline hockey tournament, which was hosted at The Dome, Swakopmund.

The tournament games started with an opening ceremony before the Namibian senior men's team played the Moose Knuckles from South Africa with a final score of 9-1 in favour of Namibia.

The opening ceremony featured a dazzling and daring performance from Pole Dance Fitness Swakopmund (Charly Ann Debortoli and Sonja Keil); speeches from Mr. Horst Fritze (The Dome trustee), honourable Cleophas Mutjavikua (Governor of Erongo Region), Freddy Mwiya (Sports Commission Chief Administrator) and Dave Hammond, Africa Cup delegate and tournament organizer in conjunction with the Namibian Ice and Inline Hockey Association (NIIHA).

Eight teams competed in the men's division with two pools of four teams each playing an initial round-robin format. Players from all over the world formed club teams to compete at this year's Africa Cup inline hockey tournament. Brazil, Canada, India, Spain, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, USA, South Africa and of course Namibia all had players from their respective nations participating in this tournament.

The end of round-robin play concluded with Team Namibia Juniors taking the number 1 seed in pool B and the Labeda Bulls edging Team Namibia Men's team in the game of the century. Both teams put on a show for the over 800 spectators in attendance and the Labeda Bulls scored in overtime, clinching the number 1 seed in pool A.

The action in the playoffs was non-stop. The SAS Bluebirds beat the Dare Devils 7-3 for seventh place. SA Moose Knuckles edged the Taunus Wild Hogs (Germany) 4-3 for fifth place.

The bronze medal went to Team Namibia Juniors who beat the Peregrine Falcons 10-5 and the gold medal was won by Team Namibia Seniors, beating the Labeda Bulls 5-2 with Cello Baas (Namibia Seniors) scoring three goals and winning the Most Valuable Player award.

The top goalie of the tournament award went to Gerrit Pchalek (Namibia Juniors). The top defender was Matt Wojcik (Labeda Bulls) and top forward went to Dave Hammond (Labeda Bulls).

We had 2 000 people in attendance for the week, excluding all players and officials with another 8 000 viewers online. None of this would have been possible without the sponsors – Spar Namibia, Bank Windhoek, The Dome Swakopmund, Swakopmund Hotel & Entertainment Centre, Nissan Pupkewitz and Woermann Brock Hardware.

The organizers hope to build on this great success and be back next year same time, bigger and better.

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