Staff Reporter
Springs, South Africa – After a long, but safe trip, the Namibian Archery Team and the Development Team finally arrived in Springs, South Africa for the All Africa All Stars Championship and Development Challenge last week.
Apart from hosts South Africa, the four-nation competition attracted other Southern African nations Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Arrows flew for two days to determine the top male and female archers and the top teams. The opening day saw every archer shoot 3 Bulls Eye rounds to get a ranking score and with these scores each team was divided into the top 8 and bottom 8.
The top 8 of each participating country started the elimination process on Bulls Eye targets, while the bottom 8 started shooting at the 3D animals before the gala dinner during the closing ceremony on Saturday evening.
The Namibian Development Team received a silver medal in the 3D competition, ahead of hosts South Africa and Botswana.
The bronze medal went to Namibia adrift of Zimbabwe and South Africa and ahead of Botswana for the Bulls Eye competition while the Development Team claimed an overall bronze medal.
Gerhard Koen from Keetmanshoop clinched the individual gold for the Bulls Eye, 3D and overall competitions and also walked away with the trophy for the Development Team Champion.
The Namibian Team received a bronze medal, beating Botswana in the Bulls Eye competition, tailing hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe in that order and were placed 3rd for the 3D competition as well as overall.
Dominique Bekker, from Walvis Bay, received the individual silver medal for the 3D All Stars competition. South Africa won the overall gold followed by Zimbabwe to complete the medal table at the 10-year anniversary of NASP in South Africa.
NASP Africa Federation was founded last year and the first ever All African All Stars team was announced with 8 archers from South Africa and 5 from Zimbabwe while the trident of Pieter Hough, Diwan Engelbrecht and Delron Gaoseb will represent Namibia.
The Namibian Archers Federation applauded the Gobabis Gymnasium for the usage of its school bus and Jaco van Vuuren for providing his Quantum bus, VW bus and trailers. It has also lauded the South Gate and Buitepos service stations respectively for a fuel sponsorship including all the private businesses sponsoring individual archers.