WINDHOEK-The Khomas School Sport Region (KSSR) hosted its first-ever sports awards for young achievers in the region on Wednesday evening at a local school.
Over 160 athletes and officials were rewarded with certificates and floating trophies. Guest of honour, Uakazuwaka ‘Wakka’ Kazombiaze, a former national rugby team player, stressed the importance of discipline, adding sports can bring a lot of positive changes to one’s life, like it did for him and the ones around him.
“Sports opened doors for me which I never imagined or dreamed off; sports gave me an education,” he said.
The KSSR falls under the regional coordinators of the Namibia Schools Sport Union, and consists of 52 primary schools and over 50 secondary schools, both public and private, in the Khomas Region. Schools compete amongst each other in football, netball, rugby, volleyball and basketball in different age categories.
Victoria Shikwambi, an education inspector, said at the same event that the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture believes in educating children holistically, hence the provision of Physical Education (PE) lessons.
“Unfortunately, physical education is neglected simply because we do not have teachers who specialise in sports; most schools regard it as a period to complete syllabuses for other subjects,” said Shikwambi.
She applauded those schools that utilise the PE lessons for sports, saying this helps improve children’s physical skills, self-esteem, health and mental development.
KSSR chairperson, Patrick Xoagub paid tribute to the parents who encourage their children to participate in sports, saying they will benefit from it.
Xoagub also revealed that they have negotiated with various stakeholders to improve schools sports in the region, with some negotiations already bearing fruit.
These include sponsorship deals from various corporate companies, like Escalate Investments, who sponsored the awards with N$40 000 while First National Bank Namibia gave N$10 000. Auas Motors sponsored gold, silver and bronze medals as well as floating trophies.
“We have negotiated with the City of Windhoek so that the football Under-11 competitions can be taken over [through sponsorship] by them,” he said. – 0
The award winners were:
Best Performance
Sade de Sousa (athletics)
Ivan Geldenhuys (athletics)
Sportsman and Sportswoman
Juniors
Dirk Theunissen (athletics)
Mione Garbers (netball)
Seniors
Bernard Wessels (rugby)
Anette van Staden (athletics)