AFTER some great performances on Monday, Namibian athletes found the going tough in Tuesday’s competition at the Commonwealth Games.
On Monday, Namibia’s bowls players beat highly rated teams like New Zealand and Canada, but on Tuesday they lost most of their matches.
Namibia’s Women’s Pairs team of Diana Viljoen and Theuna Grobler won one and lost one match.
They lost their first encounter 1,5-0,5 to New Zealand (8-8, 14-2), but then beat Zambia 1,5-0,5 in their second match (7-7, 11-5).
Namibia’s Women’s Trips team of Bea Lampbrecht, Charlotte Morland and Lesley Vermeulen lost both of their matches on Tuesday.
In their first match, they gave a fine account of themselves before going down in a tight encounter against Jersey. Namibia won the first set 13-4, but Jersey came back to win the second set 11-6 while they also won the tiebreak 3-2 to clinch the match.
Namibia were then thoroughly outplayed by Northern Ireland who won the match by two sets to nil. (12-6, 13-6).
In the Men’s Pairs competition, the Namibian team of Willie Esterhuizen senior and Jean Viljoen lost both their matches.
In their first match against India, Namibia won the first set 14-4, but India won the second 13-8, before clinching the tiebreak 3-1.
In their second match, Esterhuizen senior and Viljoen lost 2-0 to Malta (11-4, 8-5).
In the Men’s Trips competition the Namibian team of Will Esterhuizen junior, Steven Peake and Graham Snyman lost both their matches in straight sets against Australia and India.
They lost 2-0 against Australia (14-5, 10-8) and 2-0 against India (10-4, 12-3).
In boxing Namibian lightweight Mikka Shonena lost his lightweight fight 6-3 on points against Mark O’ Hara of Northern Ireland. O’Hara won the first round 2-1, but Shonena drew the second round 2-2 to come within a point of O’ Hara.
O’ Hara however raised his performance to win the final round 2-0 to see off Shonena’s challenge.
In archery, Johannes Grobler was Namibia’s only archer to win a match. Competing in the Compound Individual Men elimination competition, he beat Stuart Wilson of Northern Ireland to progress to the last 16. Here his competition however came to an end as he lost 2-0 to Stuart Clifton of New Zealand.
Namibia’s other two archers, Ben van Wyk and Dirk Bockmuhl both lost their opening Round of 32 matches. Van Wyk lost 2-0 to Jacobus de Wet of South Africa, while Bockmuhl lost 2-0 to Patrick Coghlan of Australia.
In gymnastics, Kimberly Ann van Zyl finished 42nd in the Individual All Around Women’s Qualification competition, while she came 20th on the beam apparatus. – namibiasport.com.na
