Staff Reporter
Swakopmund-The final league matches in the Namibian Ice-and Inline Hockey Association (NIIHA) took centre stage at Swakopmund last weekend.
As a result of the increasing number of player numbers across all age group divisions, NIIHA was for the first time obliged to split the format of the tourney, that saw participating clubs hosted in the Junior and Senior tourneys each, at their respective Inline Hockey rinks.
With this particular format, NIIHA managed to get all matches played over one weekend, including all the B-teams that entered the league during the current season (2017).
This practice required from the affiliates to organise two tourneys on different weekends with players and supporters having to travel twice as much to be at all the tourneys.
In general, the game of Inline Hockey is played in Swakopmund at the Coastal Pirates Club (CP), in Otjiwarongo at the Scorpions Club (SCO), as well as the three Windhoek Clubs: Badgers (BAD), Cazadores (CAZ) and Kamikaze (KAZ).
Competition in last weekend’s tourney was fierce, often delivering a few interesting surprises that saw the usual one-club dominance across all divisions and age groups, abruptly ended.
Upon completion of the one-day tourney, event organisers applauded the participating clubs and their respective coaches for coaching their teams to new heights in this fast-growing sporting discipline.
The top 4 seeded teams will now battle it out at the Theo’s Superspar NIIHA Champs in Otjiwarongo on the 3rd of next month.
The 4th seeded team will face the 1st, while the 2nd seeded team will face the 3rd seeded side, after which the teams fight it out in the finals for gold, silver and bronze and of course the Theo’s Superspar Cup in each division.
Further, top scorer, top assist and top goaltender titles for the season are also up for grabs for players in each age group.