2017-09-06
THE Netball Pent Series sponsored by Debmarine Namibia kicks off at the Israel Patrick Iyambo Police College on Wednesday morning with five southern African nations due to battle it out for the trophy.
The hosts Namibia will compete against Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Swaziland for top honours in the tournament, while they will also aim to improve their international ranking since the tournament has been approved by the international mother body, INF.
Namibia has the most to gain as they are currently the lowest ranked nation in Africa at eighth, while they are ranked 37th in the world.
Namibia only returned to the world rankings two months ago after a lengthy absence, after they managed to compete at the African Championships in Kampala, Uganda.
That trip was not without incident as a lack of funds saw only nine in stead of 12 players travelling to Kampala to represent Namibia, and although they lost all their matches, at least they are now back on the world rankings.
The rest of the competing nations are very closely grouped on the world rankings and some exciting showdowns can be expected.
Zambia is ranked fourth in Africa and 15th in the world and is immediately followed by Zimbabwe (fifth in Africa and 16th in the world).
Botswana is ranked sixth in Africa and 20th in the world, while Swaziland is seventh in Africa and 30th in the world.
Results at the African Championships generally confirmed this, although Africa’s top ranked nation, South Africa, who are fifth in the world did not participate and neither did Swaziland.
Uganda won the championship after winning all their matches, which included a shock 66-43 victory against African powerhouses Malawi. After the tournament, Malawi, however, remained second in Africa and sixth in the world, while Uganda moved up to third in Africa and ninth in the world.
Zimbabwe finished third after winning three of their five matches, which included a narrow 59-58 win against Zambia who finished fourth.
They were followed by Botswana in fifth place and Namibia who finished last after losing all five their matches.
They lost 69-31 to Uganda, 56-46 to Zambia, 61-35 to Malawi, 57-38 to Botswana, 68-37 to Zimbabwe.
Despite starting as the underdogs, Namibia’s coach Mansie Tjivera said they are aiming to win the tournament.
“We have prepared well and we are quite confident. We can win some matches if not all of our matches,” he said.
Tjivera said he expected a much better performance than at the African Championships where Namibia had a depleted side.
“We now have a full squad of players while the home ground advantage will also count in our favour,” he said.
“Our players are positive and fit and they know the time to deliver has arrived,” he added.
Netball Namibia’s PRO, Rebekka Goagoses said their main aim would be to improve their world ranking.
“The tournament will run for three years in terms of our sponsorship from Debmarine, so we are just aiming to take it step by step and hopefully our ranking will improve,” she said.
Goagoases said that for the first series they had invited SADC nations in close proximity and ranking to Namibia, but that they might invite other nations in future.
“We are still in the development phase and we must now first try and get exposure, but in future we could look at inviting other countries like Malawi,” she said.
The tournament starts with the opening ceremony at 09h00 on Wednesday morning, to be followed by Namibia against Swaziland at 10h30 and Zimbabwe against Botswana at 14h30.
The tournament continues with matches everyday through till Sunday morning.
The Namibian – https://www.namibian.com.na/168935/archive-read/Pent-Series-heralds-Namibian-netball-revival
