Gobabis and Windhoek were crowned the champions of the Standard Bank National Junior Hockey Festival, which was held in the capital over the weekend.
Both the boys’ and girls’ finals went down to the wire and had to be determined via penalty shootouts.
In the boys’ final, Gobabis once again displayed their superiority in the competition as they won the title for the fourth year in a row. They were, however, pushed all the way by Rehoboth, who held them to a goalless draw to send the match into penalties, where Gobabis finally emerged 2-0 winners.
The competition was tough and both teams had to pull out all the stops to make it to the final.
In the quarter-finals, Gobabis beat Windhoek 3-2 on a shootout after a full-time score of 0-0, while in the semi-finals, they beat Okahandja 2-1.
Rehoboth’s path to the final was even more difficult as they had to overcome penalty shootouts in both their quarter and semi-final matches.
In the quarter-finals, they played to a goalless draw against Outapi before progressing 3-2 on penalties, while in the semi-finals they beat Ongwediva with the same score.
Okahandja won the bronze medal and beat Ongwediva 1-0 in the third place play-off match.
Gobabis had a chance to win the double as their girls also progressed to the final, but this time Windhoek emerged victorious after another shootout victory. After a goalless encounter, Windhoek took the honours with a 2-0 shootout victory.
Earlier, Windhoek just managed to beat Mariental 1-0 on a shootout after a goalless draw, while in the semi-finals they beat Ongwediva 2-0.
Gobabis, meanwhile, beat Nkurenkuru 1-0 in the quarter-finals and Keetmanshoop by the same score in the semi-finals.
In the bronze medal match, Ongwediva beat Keetmanshoop 1-0.
A total of 15 towns, representing 13 regions of Namibia, took part in the national tournament organised by the Hockey School of Excellence for the fifth consecutive year, while 300 junior players, representing 75 primary schools throughout the country, participated in the tournament.
It was the fifth year that Standard Bank had sponsored the programme, and tournament coordinator Erwin Handura says it was once again a resounding success.
“The commitment of Standard Bank Namibia to develop hockey in our beautiful country, over the past five years has been enormous and the level of the competition is testimony to that effect,” he says.
“Each of the 15 teams came prepared with a boys’ as well as a girls’ team of 10 players each, for one of the biggest sport developmental tournaments on Namibian soil,” he says.
“A total of 58 matches were played on Saturday, and the high skill levels of all the teams showcased the hard work put in by coaches and players from all 13 participating regions.”
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