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Sport in Namibia

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View of Sam Nujoma Stadium before a Namibia and South Africa U-20 game in March 2008

The principal sports in Namibia are football, rugby union, cricket, golf and fishing. Boxing and athletics are also popular. The home stadium for all national teams is Independence Stadium in Windhoek, while Sam Nujoma Stadium in Katutura is also occasionally used.

Football

Main article: Football in Namibia

Football in Namibia is governed by the Namibia Football Association. The Namibia Premier League is the main domestic league. The Namibia national football team has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup, but has twice been runner up in the COSAFA Cup. They have qualified for two African Cups of Nations, in 1998 and 2008, where they lost in the first round.

Rugby union

National rugby sevens team
Main article: Rugby union in Namibia

Rugby union was introduced to Namibia from South Africa in 1916. The main governing body today is the Namibia Rugby Union.

The Namibian national team are commonly known as the Welwitschia. Namibia has made the World Cup on six occasions, in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019 but has never won a game.[1]

Until independence, players for Namibia were also eligible to represent South Africa with Namibian born Springboks including Jan Ellis and, more recently, Percy Montgomery. Various players pursue their rugby careers in South Africa and in a number of European countries.

Cricket

Main article: Namibia national cricket team

The history of cricket in Namibia is closely linked with South African cricket. After independence, the newly formed Namibian Cricket Board set about developing the game throughout the country, and also arranged visits from various English county teams and The Netherlands. They were granted associate membership of the ICC in 1992. Namibia played six matches in the 2003 World Cup and lost all of them. However they had a credible match against England where they were ahead of the English under the Duckworth-Lewis method for twelve overs and Jan Berrie Burger almost mastered an upset with 85 off 86 balls. Rudi van Vuuren took 5 wickets, and later went on to feature in the Rugby World Cup for Namibia that same year. Namibia is currently playing in the ICC world T20 in UAE and Oman. The team won its first ever world cup match against Netherlands followed by victory against Ireland to qualify for Super 12s. Currently playing in the ICC T20 World Cup In Australia.

World Cup

  • 1975 to 1992 inclusive: Not eligible - Not an ICC member
  • 1996: Did not qualify
  • 1999: Did not qualify
  • 2003: First round
  • 2007: Did not qualify
  • T20 World Cup 2021 : Super 12

Development Programs

Except for a few cases, cricket in Namibia has been confined to the Afrikaans and German speaking populations, with the indigenous Africans who constitute 80% of the national population showing hardly any interest.

Golf

Aerial view of Rossmund Estate and Rossmund Golf Course
22°40′08″S 014°35′52″E / 22.66889°S 14.59778°E / -22.66889; 14.59778

The most prominent Namibian golfer is Trevor Dodds.

There are 25 Golf courses in Namibia [de]:

Sailing

The Namibia Sailing Association is the national governing body for the sport of sailing in Namibia, serving at the discretion of the Namibian Sports Commission and recognised by World Sailing.

The following are affiliated members:

  • Walvis Bay Yacht Club
  • Namib Kite & Windsurf Club
  • Luderitz Yacht Club
  • Nomad Sailing Club Windhoek
  • Skeleton Coast Surf Club

Horse Riding

Namibian Equestrian Riding

The Namibian Equestrian Federation (NAMEF) was founded in 1958 by Mr. E Homan, E. Holtz and I. Voigts. It was originally known as the South West African Horse Society and changed its name to NAMEF after Namibia gained independence from the Republic of South Africa. They are affiliated to the Namibian Sport Commission (NSC), the Namibian National Olympic Committee (NNOC) and the International body Federation Equestrian International (FEI) since 1992, representing the horse sport on a National and International level.[2]

Namibian Endurance Riding

Namibia Endurance Ride Association (NERA) is the official association for endurance riding in Namibia. NERA holds regular endurance competitions and rides throughout the country.[3]

Boxing

There have been several successful Namibian boxers, including Japhet Uutoni (winner of gold medal at 2006 Commonwealth Games and 2006 African Boxing championships), Paulus Ambunda (represented his country at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens), Paulus Moses, Harry Simon and Joseph Jermia (represented his country at the 2004 Summer Olympics as well as winning a bronze medal in the 48 kg weight class in the 2003 All-Africa Games. In March 2008, Namibia hosted the final round of qualifying for the continental tournament of boxing at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[4] As Japhet Uutoni had already qualified for the 2008 Olympics by winning his class in the first round of qualifiers, 2 other Namibian boxers also qualified (Mujandjae Kasuto and Julius Indongo). In January 2009, Paulus Moses defeated Yusuke Kobori of Japan to win the WBA lightweight title.[5]

Athletics

The most prominent Namibian athlete, and one of the most prominent people in general, is the former sprinter Frankie Fredericks. He is the first Olympic medalist from the country, and won four Olympic silver medals in total.[6] He also became world champion in 1993 and won an additional three silver medal at the World Championships, all in the 200 metres event. He holds the African record in this event with 19.68 seconds, and held the African record in 100 metres until May 2006.[7]

Sprinters Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi attended the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Although disallowed from their favourite 400 metres event due to naturally high testosterone levels,[8] they both ran the 200 metres and qualified for the final, the first female Namibian athletes to do so at the Olympics.[9] Christine Mboma won a silver at Tokyo Olympics 2020 in women's 200m.

Other prominent athletes include middle distance runner Agnes Samaria and long-distance runner Luketz Swartbooi, as well as paralympic athletes Johanna Benson, Ananias Shikongo, Johannes Nambala, and Reginald Benade.

Basketball

Main article: Namibia national basketball team

Namibia waits for its first qualification for the FIBA Africa Championship. Its basketball federation cooperates with the German federation.[10]

Lawn Bowls in Namibia

Lawn bowls was one of the first sport codes in Namibia to produce a world champion. Douw Calitz was the winner of this title when he emerged victor of the World Champion of Champions tournament in 2003 in Moama, Australia. Some of the major national tournaments include the annual National League, as well as the annual Namibia National Championships. In 2013, Namibia played host to the African States Tournament, a competition featuring seven countries from all over Africa. The National men's side is currently ranked 11th in the world.

Icestock in Namibia

The Icestocksport Association of Namibia was founded in 2004. The men's team won the Africa Cup on 6 occasion (2005, 2007, 2009,[11] 2015, 2017,[12][13] 2019). The ladies' team won the Africa Cup in 2013 and 2017.[12] In 2020 the men's team won the silver medal at the World Championship in group B.[14]

References

  1. ^ Meagher, Gerard (18 September 2015). "Rugby World Cup 2015 power rankings: New Zealand on top at kick-off". The Guardian sport blog.
  2. ^ "Namibian Equestrian Federation". Namibian Equestrian Federation. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  3. ^ "Namibian Endurance Ride Association". Namibia Endurance Ride Association. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  4. ^ Namibia to host Olympic Games boxing qualifying tournament | Namibia Sport Magazine
  5. ^ Vester, Mark (3 January 2009). "Paulus Moses Decisions Yusuke Kobori, Wins WBA Title". BoxingScene.com. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  6. ^ "Frankie Fredericks - A Namibian gentleman". Olympic Channel. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  7. ^ "Frankie Fredericks". Sport Feed. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  8. ^ Imray, Gerald (2021-07-02). "Namibia teenagers out of Olympic 400 over testosterone level". Associated Press. Retrieved 2021-07-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ Schütz, Helge (3 August 2021). "Flying Namibians into final". The Namibian. p. 20.
  10. ^ Namibia: Abschiedsfeier für erfolgreiches Basketballprojekt (in German), dosb.de, 1 November 2013, accessed 6 September 2015.
  11. ^ "Ein bisschen wie "Cool Runnings"".
  12. ^ a b Kaure, Adolf (19 August 2020). "Namibia sweeps Kenya aside". Erongo.
  13. ^ "Nummer Eins in Afrika". Allgemeine Zeitung. 1 August 2017.
  14. ^ Icestock Namibia
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