Maurice Kambukwe

The Namibian Squash Association (NSA) has suspended all official national competitions while hopes of sending players to represent the country at the World Junior Squash Championships in Australia this month has hit the wall due to the coronavirus pandemic. 
The World Junior Squash Championships, which attracts the world’s best talents, was pencilled for Australia between 19 July and 30 July. Namibia, as an affiliate of the World Squash Federation (WSF), was one of the invited members to take part in the championships, but WSF has since called off the competition due to coronavirus.

Not only has Namibia missed out on a golden opportunity to partake in the World Junior Squash Championships, but the country’s hopes of competing at next month’s World Masters Squash Championships in Poland have also hit the snug after the cancellation of the event as well.
Speaking to New Era Sport, NSA president Rudi Koekemoer said: “NSA has suspended all official national competitions due to Covid-19 and has directed all clubs to diligently observe all relevant directives. The NSA is affiliated to the World Squash Federation; therefore, we also need to abide by decisions and directives from world leaders in the squash code,” said Koekemoer.

“The WSF has postponed international events, including the World Masters Squash Championships that would have taken place in August 2020 in Wroclaw, Poland. A Namibian delegation was set to participate in the Masters event but we now look forward to the event in August 2021. The World Junior Championships that was scheduled for this month in Australia has been cancelled too. However, Namibia junior squash will remain committed to grooming and developing players to participate in future international events,” added Koekemoer.

“Namibian juniors historically competed in regional events in South Africa, thereby getting exposure to international standard competitions. Currently, Namibia has five NSA affiliated clubs – in addition to a few non-affiliated clubs also participating in the sport. There are approximately 960 active squash players in Namibia,” said Koekemoer.
– mkambukwe@nepc.com.na