Namibia gets two bronze medals at Youth Games

MBABANE – The National Under-20 sports team got its first medal at the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA) Zone Six Youth Games yesterday when Kari van der Vaart won the bronze medal in the girls’ freestyle swimming event in a time of 2 minutes and 13 seconds.

Namibia added a second bronze medal almost immediately thereafter when the girls’ relay team came third in the freestyle swimming event, as South Africa and Zimbabwe came first and second respectively.The swimming events took place at the Sifundzani Primary School swimming pool in the Swazi capital.The swimming events will continue tomorrow.Meanwhile, the organising committee informed Nampa that the games that were scheduled to start on Friday last week could only kick off on Sunday due to logistical problems.As a result the planned official opening soccer match between host Swaziland and Botswana had to be postponed.The boxing and basketball disciplines will also no longer form part of the event due to alleged logistical shortcomings.The games are now billed to end on December 18 and not on December 20 as initially planned.Namibia came second overall in the 2008 edition of the bi-annual event held in Potchefstroom, South Africa, with a total of 67 medals, of which 16 were gold, 22 silver and 29 bronze medals.Namibia will compete in athletics (including visually-impaired athletes), basketball, boxing, football (boys and girls), netball, swimming and tennis.The swimming team previously brought home one gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze medals of the total medal haul. – Nampa