Namibia’s young wrestlers did their country proud with a haul of nine medals at the African Wrestling Championships held in Hammamet, Tunisia from 15 to 20 May.
Calvin Dreyer led the way with a gold and a bronze medal in the u17 junior u45kg division, winning gold in the greco roman and bronze in the freestyle categories.
In the greco roman category, he beat Helmi Chihi of Tunisia in the final, after beating Carlos Giammello of South Africa in the first round.
In the freestyle category he finished third after losing to Mustapha Batnini of Tunisia and Giammello of South Africa.
Lafras Uys won two medals in the junior u92kg category – silver in the greco roman and bronze in the freestyle.
In the greco roman category he beat Yassine Aicha of Tunisia in the semifinals, before losing the final to Abdelfattah Abdelzaher of Egypt.
Ester Abrahams won a silver medal in the 59kg junior women’s freestyle category after losing to Farah Hussein of Egypt.
All of Namibia’s other medals came in the greco roman style.
Romio Goliath won a bronze medal in the senior 60kg division after beating Mohamed Hkiri of Tunisia in the third place match.
In the quarterfinals he beat Riehan Botha of South Africa, but in the semifinals he lost to the eventual silver medallist, Ibrahim Bunduka of Sierra Leone.
Alex Haininga won bronze in the 55kg senior category after beating Given Sikhosana of South Africa in the third place match.
In the semifinals he lost to the eventual gold medallist Mohamed Dridi of Algeria.
In the junior u17 55kg category, Lazarus Haimbodi won a bronze medal after losing the third place match to Firas Bouthouri of Tunisia.
In the junior u20 division, Virinao Nguatjiti won a bronze medal in the 55kg category, after winning one and losing two fights.
In the u17 51kg division, Darian Mouton just missed out on a medal after finishing fourth.
In the greco roman senior team rankings, Namibia finished seventh overall out of 11 competing nations with a total of 30 points.
Algeria came first on 210 points, followed by Egypt (200) and Tunisia (149).
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