WINDHOEK – The opening tournament of the Bank Windhoek National Fistball season produced some entertaining Fistball in Windhoek last weekend that saw favourites, SKW 1 winning the National A League category, while Cohen FC 3 won the National B League category.
The highlight of the opening tournament was the selection of the U-18 national team that will represent Namibia at the U-18 World Fistball Championship in Brazil, in April this year. Coach, Andreas Minz has a number of practice camps planned to prepare the players for the event, while the team will also be in action at the first league meeting slated for Swakopmund on the 15th of next month. SKW 1 was surprisingly in good form early in the season last week. The reigning league champions were one player short for most of the preliminary round of the competition, but nevertheless managed to win all their games to qualify for the tournament final in the National A League category. Cohen FC 1 followed them into the final with a win in the qualifying match against SKW 2. The final proved to be a very close game with neither team getting the better of the other. SKW 1 managed to win the first two sets by 12:10 and 11:9, before Cohen FC 1 pulled back a set winning 9:11. The U-18 national team captain Tristan Minz put up a fine performance to keep Cohen FC in the game. The final set however went the way of SKW 1 by 11:7 giving them the tournament win. The final of the National B League category produced another match-up between arch-rivals, Cohen FC and SKW.
Cohen FC 3 started the tournament as clear favourites for the cup since the defending National B League champion did not lose a game during the 2013 season. They were surprised by SKW 3 during the preliminary round when SKW 3 won against the CFC 3 in an entertaining and close match. The teams met again in the final where Cohen FC3 came much better prepared. They dominated the game during the first two sets winning by 11:6 and 11:4. SKW 3 regrouped in the third set which they won by 9:11. This was not enough however as Cohen FC took the deciding set by 11:4. Apart from the first fistball action for the season, the U-18 national team which will travel to Brazil in April was selected on Saturday. The team consists of Sven Hülsmann, Nicolai Hof, Eric Kolb, Marius Rohloff, Andi Meng, (all from SFC Sport Club Swakopmund ) Rico Kühnle-Kreitz, Marc-Andre Witte, (both from SKW) Tristan Minz and Andre Schmidt-Dumont (both from Cohen FC).
By Staff Reporter