Namibian sport on tenterhooks

NAMIBIA’s sporting community is waiting anxiously for the government’s new Covid-19 lockdown guidelines which will be announced this weekend.

Under Stage 3 of the lockdown, which comes to an end on Saturday, most sporting activities were prohibited, with contact sport and spectators being banned, while a maximum of 10 people were allowed to participate in training sessions.

That brought an abrupt halt to some sporting activities that had resumed at the end of July, especially in codes like cricket, tennis, hockey and squash, while even schools rugby made a brief appearance.

Tennis managed to stage some senior and junior tournaments, squash concluded its summer league, while hockey resumed its indoor league.

Cricket hosted some junior friendly matches and broke new ground with an inaugural Tens tournament that featured national players and some of Namibia’s top up and coming junior players.

All these tournaments, however, were put on hold when the country reverted back to Stage 3 on 12 August as Covid 19 infections started to climb. At that stage, Namibia was ranked 114th in the world with a total of 3 229 infections and 19 deaths caused by the pandemic, but since then it has climbed steadily, and by Thursday Namibia was ranked 96th in the world with 9 108 infections and 93 deaths.

The chief administrator of the Namibia Sport Commission, Fred Mwiya yesterday was rather non-committal.

“I can only make a pronouncement after we have heard what the new guidelines are. In Khomas the number of cases have been fluctuating, so it’s difficult to say, but we are discouraging athletes from participating in competitions or contact sport,” he said.

He said the government’s strict guidelines had helped to contain the virus.

“We have managed to contain the virus due to the strict measures in place and I must congratulate the sport codes which are really adhering to the measures,” he said.

“The health of our athletes is the top priority and if they adhere to the regulations we will be able to reduce the numbers of infections. So I’m encouraging the athletes to keep on training, but not to participate in competitions,” he added.

Especially Namibia’s national men and women’s hockey teams will await the announcement with bated breath, since they are still hoping to compete in the Indoor Africa Cup in South Africa, which is scheduled to take place in two weeks’ time, from 25 to 27 September.

The winners of the competition will qualify for the 2021 Indoor World Cup in Belgium, but if the Africa Cup cannot take place, world rankings will determine which countries qualify for the world cup. If that’s the case, Namibia’s women will qualify since they are ranked higher than South Africa, but the latter’s men will qualify.

But even if Namibia’s restrictions are eased, it will also depend on the South African government’s guidelines with regard to Covid-19.

Mwiya, however, didn’t sound very optimistic.

“It all depends on the government’s announcement, and we will also consult with our line ministry, but as it stands now, we don’t allow international sport competitions.”

“Are we ready to send a team out of the country and are they optimally prepared? Also, to send them to a country with a high infection rate is not so easy. We will consider all the facts and apply our minds to the issue, but the Namibia Hockey Union must also talk to the international hockey body to seek guidance,” he said.

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