Namibia finished 23rd overall at the Junior Men’s Hockey World Cup in Madurai, India after beating Oman 4-2 in their final match yesterday.
Oman opened the scoring with a penalty by Maitham Al Wahaibi at the end of the first quarter, but Namibia came back strongly in the second quarter and field goals by Josh van der Merwe and Gerhard Myburgh put them 2-1 ahead at half time.
Oman drew level at 2-2 in the final quarter but Namibia finished strongly with a short corner goal by captain JP Britz and a field goal by Ludwig van Rooyen to seal a 4-2 victory.
That was their second victory at the world cup following another 4-2 win against Egypt during the group stages, which saw them finishing 23rd out of the 24 competing nations.
After the match Britz said it was a good way to end the tournament, despite not reaching their goals.
“I am happy to have ended the World Cup with a win, I know it’s not the place that we wanted at the end of the day, our aims were quite higher, but we were just unlucky with one game where things didnt go our way. It was nice to see how the boys fought back after two devastating losses to Austria and Canada,” he said.
“But to end the tournament on a high and with two world cup wins, I think its the first time in Namibian history to do that, so I’m also proud of that. Like I said we are not happy with the end result, but I think this is something we can take away for the players in the future,” he added.
“I’d like to encourage the people back home to send us to these types of tournaments so that the guys can play more hockey and stay in the system, so that when they come to the senior men’s set-up then they have enough tournaments under the belt that will help them grow as individuals and obviously as a country.
“It was a very tough match, Oman they came out very hard, and I’m just happy that it went our way at the end. The boys worked hard until the end and it showed, scoring in the final seconds to kill the game so I’m very happy about that.”
Namibia coach Johan Weyhe said it was a great achievement.
“I don’t think the people back home realise what is the feeling to win your second game at the World Cup. It’s the first time that we played at that level and to win two games is a big achievement. We also had the honour to play Spain who are now in the final, so Im very proud of the boys, I think they really did Namibia proud,” he said.
“It’s now the coaches’ work to bring all that knowledge back to Namibia and help the others and start now already preparing for the next World Cup in two years, but also for the qualifier that will be in 2026. So we need to get ourselves ready so that we can once again play at the world cup, which is very exciting and a huge achievement,” he said.
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