WINDHOEK – Namibian beach volleyball female pair of Kim Seebach and Julia Laggner along with their coach James Verrinder recently scooped a silver medal at the maiden African Beach Games in Sal, Cape Verde.
After several great competitions over the last five years, which includes a 5th place finish at the Confédération Africaine de Volleyball (CAVB) Cup of Nations in 2015 and followed by a 7th place at the CAVB Continental Cup Finals in 2016, participating was not enough for Seebach and Laggner this time around as they went on to demonstrate their dominance in Cape Verde. The competition saw 17 African countries participating. They were divided into four groups where Namibia face the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Morocco.
The Namibian duo of Seebach and Laggner first defeated Morocco 2:1 before dispatching Congo 2:0, but suffered a narrow 2:1 defeat at the fast serving hands of the Mozambicans.
This left Namibia in second place on the group and was enough to see them progress into the quarterfinals where they faced neighbours Angola.
With a very close first set, which Seebach and Laggner won by 22:20 and then took control in the second set winning 21:14 and eventually the match 2:0. In the semifinals, the Namibian duo faced Kenya. They controlled the match from the start and produced their best performance of the competition, which saw them beating Kenya 2:0 to reach the final where they met Morocco.
In the final, Seebach and Laggner worked hard in the first set but were unable to play the same type of volleyball they played in the semifinal, losing the first set 21:18 to a much-improved Moroccan team.
The second set also slipped out of the Namibians hands and allowed Morocco to eventually win the match 2:0, which left Seebach and Laggner with a 2nd place finish and Namibia scooping a historic first ever silver medal at the African Beach Games.