By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – Namibia’s beach volleyball senior ladies team left for Tunisia last weekend to participate in the African qualification tournament en route to the prestigious World Championships, to be hosted by the Netherlands in June later this year.
For the very first time, Africa was awarded four spots per gender for the main draw of the global championships. The pair of Kim Seebach and Julia Laggner, playing together for the first time, will represent Namibia in the ladies category. The two are paired together in their first appearance in the august event.
“We have chosen the best local players, who, as a team, have a realistic chance to qualify for the World Championship,” said coach James Verrinder, who accompanied the travelling entourage to Tunisia in the capacity of coach and manager.
Verrinder added that the Namibian male teams are not yet competitive enough to have any chance to finish among the top four on the African continent.
“Our budget is limited and unfortunately our national airline does not support us at all with rebated flights to Frankfurt,” said Heiko Kesselmann, the Vice-President of the Namibian Volleyball Federation.
So far, nine countries have confirmed their participation in the North African country, leaving the Namibian pair of Laggner and Seebach to at least shake off some unwanted attention from five other fellow competitors if they are to clinch one of the available top four places for qualification to the global showpiece.
South Africa will most probably be clear favourites to reach the top of the log, but with the rest of the other teams, we have no idea about their strength while Southern African powerhouses Angola and Mozambique have not entered.