Tough battles for King & Queen of the Beach

The fourth of five events in the 2016 Timeout beach volleyball series was held at DTS Beach Arena in Windhoek last Saturday. The Red Bull Interpack event was the third event held at the DTS Beach Arena this year, after the huge success of the Vita Juice Mixed Grand Slam in April, followed by the Word Press Namibia Winter Classic in June.
The format for the King & Queen tournament is to enter as an individual athlete and play with several partners to determine the best all-round beach volleyball player. The tournament had five categories – four for the 2-a-side beach volleyball (Men, Ladies, Legend Men and Legend Ladies) and the ever-popular Mixed Social 4-a-side.
The 45 athletes and seven teams weren’t just playing for the King & Queen titles, but also for N$6 000 of prizes in total, sponsored by Red Bull Interpack.
In the 4-a-side category, seven teams battled it out in a round-robin format to try and reach the finals. At the end of the pool stages, the top four teams crossed over for the semi-final with Dunes, Spikoholics, Phoenix Y and Phoenix O all comfortably coming through their pool games with at least four wins each.
A much improved performance from Fantastic Four saw them improve their result from the previous Timeout Series event in June, with a strong fifth place finish.
In the semi-finals both Dunes and Spikoholics took comfortable wins to reach the final (25-17 and 25-20), leaving the two Phoenix teams to fight for the podium, with Phoenix Y winning in two sets 25-22, 25-15 to take third place.
The final was a great game to watch, but was decided over just two sets (25-18, 25-20). Dunes dominated at the net with some powerful spiking and blocking and won the match to becoming Red Bull Interpack King and Queen 4-a-side mixed champions.

LEGENDS
For the first time the series hosted a male and female Legends categories (over 40 semi/fully retired athletes).
The Ladies Legends saw four ex-players stepping onto the sand again and compete for the title of Legend Queen of the Beach.
Selma Nahambo, Kirsten Schreiber, Karin Curschmann and Moddesty Farmer played in a round-robin format with the top three podium positions having to be decided by points difference. After three matches Karin, Selma and Kirsten all finished with two wins each, which left Moddesty in fourth.
After carefully calculating the points difference, Kirsten finished in a creditable third place (-4 points), Karin in second (+8 points) and Selma Nahambo in gold medal position (+14 points).
In the Men’s Legends, tien ex-players renewed their rivalries one more time to go for the top spot.
Walter Farmer, Ruben Delie, Deon Cloete, Dieter Curschmann, Reinhold Schreiber, Jochen Henke, John Beukes, Udo Witte, Mark Brinkmann and Heiko Kesselmann played three rounds of matches. In each round the lowest ranked legends fell out, to leave a final four.
In the final it finished much like the Ladies Legends competition, with Walter finishing in fourth place and the other three all winning two out of three games. Once again points difference were calculated and in third place was Ruben (-5). The silver medal went to John (+9) and taking the top spot on the podium was Deon (+11).
It was a real pleasure seeing the Legends throwing themselves around in the sand. They will be doing it all again at the Fabupharm Swakop Masters on Mole Beach, Swakop in October.

LADIES
In the women’s competition some of the best beach players in Namibia battled it out for the title of ‘Queen of the Beach’. African Continental Cup finalist Rosi Hennes and Steff Palmhert as well as U19 World Championship participants Michi Böhringer and Kristin Schulz were just a few names that made up the field of 12 athletes.
The ladies would play in three groups of four players playing round-robin, with bottom four dropping out after each of the first two rounds.
The final four comprised of Rosi, Kristin, Steff and Simone von Wietersheim. After a tough battle, three athletes finished on two out of three wins and the podium places would be decided on points difference.
Steff Palmhert finished in bronze medal position with a record of 13-21, 21-18 and 21-15 (+1 points). In second was Kristin Schulz 15-21, 21-13 and 21-18 (+5) and the Queen of the Beach title went to Simone von Wietersheim with a winning record of 18-21, 21-13 and 21-15 (+11).

MEN
The men’s category comprised of 18 athletes, with the two top seeds getting a bye into the second round. The competition comprised of U19 World Championship participants Daniel and Fabian Pfeifer; senior Namibian international Jan-Eric Sack and Zimbabwean Panashe Chiguta.
It took three rounds of action to find the final four athletes with notable performances from 16-year-old Danilo von Ludwiger making it to the third round.
A notable performance was given by Andriko Böhringer (only 14 years old) who made it through three rounds and into the final four in his first senior competition, finishing 4th overall.
In the final the pattern of the day continued with three athletes all winning 2 out of 3, with the title being decided on points difference. It was a close call for second and third place, being separated by two points.
Panashe finished in bronze position (+9) and Andriko von Ludwiger finished with silver (+11). The clear winner was Jan-Eric Sack with +21, taking the King of the Beach Title for the second year in a row.
A massive thanks goes to tournament sponsor Red Bull Interpack for providing N$6 000 of prize money and medals.
The Timeout beach volleyball series makes its last stop of the year at the Mole beach for the Fabupharm Swakop Masters on 22 and 23 October.
Official results:
Men: 1. Jan-Erick Sack. 2. Andriko von Ludwiger. 3. Panashe Chiguta.
Ladies: 1. Simone von Wietersheim. 2. Kristin Schulz. 3. Steff Palmhert.
Legend Men: 1. Deon Cloete. 2. John Beukes. 3. Ruben Delie.
Legend Ladies: 1. Selma Nahambo. 2. Karin Curschmann. 3. Kirsten Schreiber.