Namibia eighth at Youth Olympics

NAMIBIA’;s girls hockey team finished eighth at the Youth Olympic Games after losing 3-1 to Poland in their final match on Sunday.

Poland took a first half lead after a goal by their captain Julia Balcerzak, while Viktoria Zimmermann made it 2-0 midway through the second half.

Namibia immediately struck back when captain Kiana Cormack scored with a field goal, but a last minute goal by Zimmermann completed Poland’;s victory in the seventh-place play-off match.

On Saturday, Namibia could not match their earlier heroics when they lost 5-1 to Australia in another positional play-off match.

Namibia caused one of the upsets of the tournament when they beat Australia 4-3 in their group match on 8 October, but in their rematch on Sunday, Australia dominated from the start.

Courtney Schonell opened the scoring after only two minutes, and then two goals within a minute by Schonell and Maddison Smith put them 3-0 ahead by the halftime break.

Namibia opened their account with a field goal by Tara Myburgh, but Australia sealed their victory with two more goals by Smith and Naomi Duncan.

Australia went on to finish fifth after beating Austria 3-0 in the fifth place play-off.

Argentina won the gold medal after beating India 3-1 in the final, while China won the bronze medal after beating South Africa 6-0 in the third place play-off.

Uruguay finished ninth after beating Zimbabwe 2-0 in the ninth-place playoff match.

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