…Michael Baas still the best
WINDHOEK – SKW and Cohen FC retained the Bank Windhoek National Fistball Cup championship titles in their respective categories this past Saturday.
The final Fistball tournament of this year was marked by the participation of German fistball superstar, Dirk Schachtsiek. SKW found the going tough as they were given a full stretch in their efforts to defend their title in the A-League of the competition. After losing to Team Schachtsiek, which was led by Germany’s most successful Fistball player of recent years, in the preliminary round, SKW had to play a qualifying game to make it into the final of the cup competition, where they also faced Team Schachtsiek. SKW took the lead early on, building a five-point lead by half time. Team Schachtsiek, however, came back and equalized the score at 27:27 with one minute to go on the clock. Good defensive play by veteran player, Stefan Grögli, kept SKW in the game.
It was until an unfrorced error by Team Schachtsiek that SKW bounced back into the game, becoming the 2013 Bank Windhoek A-League National Cup champions. In the B-League of the competition, Cohen FC 3, who won the title for the seventh time in a row once again proved their dominance. They emerged victorious from a close and exciting final against SFC2. After taking an early lead, Cohen lost momentum towards the end of the first half. In the second half, the lead changed hands a couple of times with neither team managing to break away and take command of the game. Unforced errors in the dying minutes of the game cost SFC2 the game by a narrow margin of 24:26.
As is the custom at every last tournament of the season, the Fistball Association of Namibia (FAN) awarded the Player of the Year with a trophy at a prize-giving event that took place after the cup final. The winner was again Michael Baas. This is the fourth time that Baas won the award. The Junior Player of the Year (U-18) award went to Nikolai Hof, who represented Namibia at the U-18 European Championships in July this year. Danric Auto sponsored the awards. With no official Fistball tournaments on schedule at this point, the U-18 national team will continue with their preparations for the U-18 World Championships slated for Brazil in April next year. The next official tournament of FAN will be played in February next year on a yet-to-be announced date.