Namibia second in tentpegging

THE Namibian Equestrian Tentpegging Association (NETA) hosted the second Junior World Equestrian Tentpegging Championships under the IETA rules successfully at the Auas View Stables at the weekend.

This large equestrian championship saw Australia, Namibia and South Africa competing for top honours. The Namibian team enjoyed the support of the spectators and attracted a lot of new interest in the sport.The highlight of the support for the Namibian team came when Suné Wittmann, who at the age of 12 was the youngest rider in the championships, showed the other young riders why she is the best in the world in the individual lance event.The spectators jumped to their feet each time that she had a perfect score on the narrow peg of 25mm and kicked dust in the faces of the other riders.The Barnard brothers, Jaco and Lourens, also drew attention by winning and becoming the world champions in the half-section sword event.The Namibian team took two gold, four silver and two bronze medals in the 10 events and secured the overall second place.The team consisted of Jaco Barnard and Lourens Barnard from Elnatan, Suné Wittmann and Xanthe Wittmann from Windhoek Afrikaans Private School, Jan Brink from Tsumeb Gymnasium, manager Charl Wittmann and coach André Barnard.They lifted Australia from their overall world second place ranking since the first Junior World Championships held in Pretoria in 2005.In the end, South Africa scored a total of 652 points to finish first, followed by Namibia with 612 points.Australia was third with 535 points.”There was good team building and we learned to work together as a team and there were a lot of new friends made.It is not every day that one makes such good friends with people doing the same sport as yourself and living all over the world,” said the Namibian team in a statement.The statement said junior riders were all very impressed with the horses they drew from the pool to ride in the championships.The riders were all of very high standard and treated the horses very well.All the horses that the horse owners made available were in excellent health and well prepared.The management of the Namibian team, the statement said, is proud of the team and their performance.”Namibia is one of the smallest member countries in Tentpegging, yet the senior and junior team both ended second in the two world championships held on the African continent this year,” it stated.”We loved the people and have made many friends that we will keep in contact with for years to come.The competition was smoothly run and the horses were awesome.We loved travelling in the back of the bakkie, it was an experience,” the Australian team was quoted as saying.The event was sponsored Pennypinchers, Absolute Logistics, B-Mobile Car Rental, Reinforcing & Allied Industries, Twizza, Etosha Santas, Holcim, Construction Unlimited, Voermeester, Nashua and David Pickard-Cambridge.The National Championships to select the teams for 2008 will be held at Aranos from September 7 to 8.For more information, contact Charl Wittmann at 081 127 0275 or Hendrik Grové at 081 122 4243.The Namibian team enjoyed the support of the spectators and attracted a lot of new interest in the sport.The highlight of the support for the Namibian team came when Suné Wittmann, who at the age of 12 was the youngest rider in the championships, showed the other young riders why she is the best in the world in the individual lance event. The spectators jumped to their feet each time that she had a perfect score on the narrow peg of 25mm and kicked dust in the faces of the other riders.The Barnard brothers, Jaco and Lourens, also drew attention by winning and becoming the world champions in the half-section sword event.The Namibian team took two gold, four silver and two bronze medals in the 10 events and secured the overall second place.The team consisted of Jaco Barnard and Lourens Barnard from Elnatan, Suné Wittmann and Xanthe Wittmann from Windhoek Afrikaans Private School, Jan Brink from Tsumeb Gymnasium, manager Charl Wittmann and coach André Barnard.They lifted Australia from their overall world second place ranking since the first Junior World Championships held in Pretoria in 2005. In the end, South Africa scored a total of 652 points to finish first, followed by Namibia with 612 points.Australia was third with 535 points.”There was good team building and we learned to work together as a team and there were a lot of new friends made.It is not every day that one makes such good friends with people doing the same sport as yourself and living all over the world,” said the Namibian team in a statement.The statement said junior riders were all very impressed with the horses they drew from the pool to ride in the championships.The riders were all of very high standard and treated the horses very well.All the horses that the horse owners made available were in excellent health and well prepared.The management of the Namibian team, the statement said, is proud of the team and their performance.”Namibia is one of the smallest member countries in Tentpegging, yet the senior and junior team both ended second in the two world championships held on the African continent this year,” it stated.”We loved the people and have made many friends that we will keep in contact with for years to come.The competition was smoothly run and the horses were awesome.We loved travelling in the back of the bakkie, it was an experience,” the Australian team was quoted as saying.The event was sponsored Pennypinchers, Absolute Logistics, B-Mobile Car Rental, Reinforcing & Allied Industries, Twizza, Etosha Santas, Holcim, Construction Unlimited, Voermeester, Nashua and David Pickard-Cambridge.The National Championships to select the teams for 2008 will be held at Aranos from September 7 to 8.For more information, contact Charl Wittmann at 081 127 0275 or Hendrik Grové at 081 122 4243.