NAMIBIAN beach volleyball athletes Kim Seebach and Julia Laggner, as well as their coach James Verrinder made Namibia proud by winning a silver medal at the first African Beach Games which took place in Sal, Cape Verde last month.
The Namibian duo has improved steadily over the past few years, since coming fifth at the Confederation of African Volleyball (Cav) Cup of Nations in 2015 and seventh at the Cav Continental Cup finals in 2016.
The African Beach Games saw 17 African countries participating, that were divided into four groups, with Namibia drawn along with the DR Congo, Mozambique and Morocco.
Seebach and Laggner first beat Morocco 2-1 and Congo 2-0, but then lost 2-1 to Mozambique in a tight match. This left Namibia in second place in the group, which saw them qualifying for the quarterfinals where they took on Angola.
Seebach and Laggner managed to win a close first set 22-20 and then took control in the second set, winning 21-14, to win the match 2-0.The
The Namibian pair gave their best performance in the semifinals against Kenya which they won 2-0 (21-16, 21-17) to move into the final against Morocco.
In the final, Seebach and Laggner worked hard in the first set but were unable to produce the same type of volleyball they showed in the semifinal, losing the first set 21-18 to a much-improved Moroccan team. The second set also slipped out of Namibian hands and Morocco won the match 2-0, which left Seebach and Laggner with a second place and Namibia volleyball with a historic first ever silver medal.
“This result and performance was a long time coming after we started working together at the end of 2014. The girls are so talented and have a real passion for the game. The Games were really well organised and a huge thank you goes to the Namibian Olympic Committee for supporting us going to the Games,” said NVF coach James Verrinder.
