Women’s fistballers to compete in Argentina

The Namibian national women’s fistball team will depart to Argentina on 2 November to compete at the World Championship.

The World Championship will take place from 7 to 10 November in the town of Montecarlo in the Misiones province.

The last time a Namibian women’s team took part in a World Cup was 18 years ago.

“At that time, our team competed in Jona, Switzerland, and placed directly behind the big four nations in fistball (Germany, Brazil, Austria and Switzerland) and fought their way to a respectable fifth place,” Fistball Association of Namibia spokesperson Helmo Minz said.

Six of the women’s team members come from local clubs, while Sylvia Schulz has joined from her club MR Beringen in Switzerland.

Namibia will play against Colombia in the Bronze Group on 7 November before they battle USA in their second match.

“After the short group phase, the cross-over matches against the Silver Group will take place.

“In case of a victory, Namibia would advance to the quarter-finals.

“If they lose, they will be in the play-offs for places 9 to 11. All matches are played to the best out of five sets,” Minz added.

Women’s team coach Olaf Beiter has not specified where he reckons Namibia could finish in the final standings, because the team has not played international matches for too long a period to make an accurate assessment of their strength.

In addition, the women only play against men in the Namibian league.

“The team that has an average age of over 33 years will be focusing on keeping up with the upcoming matches with a lot of fighting spirit, determination and to represent Namibia well.”