THE president of the Namibia Hockey union, Reagon Graig yesterday confirmed the news that both Namibia’s men and women’s indoor hockey sides will compete at the Indoor World Cup which takes place in Liege, Belgium in February next year.
Originally only Namibia’s women’s team had qualified for the World Cup after winning the Africa Cup in April, but after Australia and New Zealand withdrew due to Covid-19 issues, four more teams were invited, including Namibia’s men.
At a press conference at MTC headquarters yesterday, the president of the Namibia Hockey Union, Reagon Graig, could not contain his excitement.
“This morning I’m extremely excited and I’ve actually been on a high since last week Thursday, when I heard the announcement. Today we are celebrating a first, because it’s the first time in the history of Namibia that a national men’s team and a national women’s team will participate in an international world cup,” he said.
“This follows an announcement from Hockey Australia and Hockey New Zealand that they will unfortunately no longer be able to participate due to Covid-related international travel restrictions and as such they’ve been replaced by Namibia and the USA in the men’s section, as well as Canada and South Africa in the women’s section. These four teams have been invited by the FIH (International Hockey Federation), based on each being the runners-up in their recently held African and Pan-American indoor championships, with a view to maintaining the balance between the number of participating teams per continent,” he added.
The Indoor Hockey World Cup will see 12 teams competing in the men and women’s competitions respectively.
In the men’s competition, Namibia will compete in Pool B along with Germany, Iran, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States, while Pool A will consist of Austria, Russia, the Czech Republic, South Africa, Kazakhstan and Argentina.
In the women’s competition, Namibia will compete in Pool B along with the Netherlands, Belarus, Austria, South Africa and Belgium, while Pool A will consist of Germany, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, the United States and Canada.
Namibia’s men’s team will open their campaign against Iran on 2 February, while the women’s opening match is against Austria on the same date.
Graig called on all Namibians to support the teams.
Ï urge all Namibians to support our national hockey teams. We all know how sport can bring our nation together,” he said.
The teams’ world rankings in the women’s competition are as follows: Germany (1), the Netherlands (2), Belarus (3), Ukraine (4), the Czech Republic (5), Austria (8), Namibia (9), Kazakhstan (11), United States (12), South Africa (14), Belgium (15) and Canada (16), while the men’s rankings are:
Austria (1), Germany (2), Iran (3), Russia (4), the Czech Republic (5), the Netherlands (7), Belgium (8), South Africa (11), Kazakhstan (13), Namibia (16), United States (18) and Argentina (19).
