Junior hockey players star in South Africa

 

PAARL – Namibia’s junior hockey teams did exceptionally well at the National Hockey Series in Paarl, South Africa, earlier this month.

The teams won one gold, one silver and one bronze medal. 

The Namibian under-18 girls’ team, coached by Trevor Cormack, excelled against the top provinces in South Africa to win the gold medal.

They met the defending champions, the invincible Boland Foxes, twice in the opening group matches. 

In the first match, the Foxes suffered their first defeat of the season as Namibia beat them 7-6 in an exciting encounter.

The Boland Foxes recovered to beat Namibia 5-0 in the second pool game, but the teams advanced to the final to meet for the third time in the tournament.

Here, Namibia rose to the occasion with a great performance, holding the Foxes to a 3-all draw at the end of fulltime, to send the match into extra time. 

In a nerve-wracking final, Namibia finished stronger to score the winning sudden death goal to win the match 4-3 and take the gold medal.

It was a brilliant performance by girls’ team, which was captained by Jerrica Cormack and included several star players like Candice Francis, Marcia Venter, Kara Scheepers and Daniela Steenkamp.

Namibia’s under-15 boys’ team also made it to the final where they came up against the Western Province Sharks team. 

They had earlier met during the group stages where the teams battled it out to draw.

In the final, there was once again not much separating the teams, and at the end of full time the score was tied at 3-all. 

The match went into a sudden-death playoff, where the Sharks eventually scored the winning goal to win the match 4-3 and clinch the gold medal.

The Namibian under-15 boys’ team, coached by Randy Slabbert, won the silver medal.

Namibia’s under-18 boys’ team recovered well after a poor start to reach the playoffs after beating Western Province Sharks 2-1. 

In the playoff for third and fourth place, they beat the Gauteng Gryphons 4-3 to win the bronze medal. Namibia’s under-18 boys’ team was coached by Bucko Bartlett.

Namibia’s under-15 girls’ team, which was coached by Jeanne Davin, played out for the third and fourth spot and narrowly lost out on the bronze medal when they lost 2-1 to Western Province B Sharks.

At the prize-giving ceremony, the following Namibian players won individual awards:

Candice Francis - Goalkeeper of the Series U/18 Girls

Andre Augustyn - Goalkeeper of the Series U/15 Boys

Jeandre Basson - Sportsmanship award U/18 Boys

Marcia Venter - Player of the Series U/18 Girls.

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