Maqonda Ndlovu
Namibia’s Indoor hockey men’s team were crowned champions of the 2023 Sulzatan Nazrin Shah Cup in Ipoh, Malaysia, following a 3-2 shootout victory over South Africa in the final on Saturday.
The two teams were tied at two-all following the 40 minutes of regulation time, and Brynn Cleak emerged as the hero by converting Namibia’s winning penalty.
Namibia’s two goals in regulation time were scored by Fagan Hansen and Cleak in the 10th and 17th minutes, respectively, before South Africa responded via Keegan Hazlett and Jethro Eustice in the 26th and 32nd minutes, respectively.
Namibia was ranked 13th in the world coming into the tournament and managed to display top-quality hockey throughout the tournament.
The Namibian team opened the tournament with a 3-2 victory over New Zealand on Monday.
In the second match, Namibia defeated host nation Malaysia 7-5 in a hotly contested match.
They then went on to beat Hong Kong China, 22-0 before losing 5-3 to South Africa.
Namibia recovered to beat Australia 12-1 to book a place in the final against South Africa.
Coach Trevor Cormack paid tribute to his team, saying the team effort on and off the field made it easy for them to win the tournament.
“We were consistently good throughout the whole tournament. The boys stuck to the game plan and executed it well in the finals. We had a great start in the first half, but going into the second half, South Africa started putting huge pressure on our boys. Although we missed several opportunities to go ahead again, we managed to hold out normal time and take the game to shootouts,” he said.
All three Namibian penalties were scored, while Hazlett failed in his attempt for South Africa.
Meanwhile, the women’s team failed to progress into the final of the tournament, having finished fifth.
In the first match, they lost 5-1 to Switzerland before beating Malaysia 4-1 in the second match.
They lost 2-1 to South Africa in the third match before drawing three-all against New Zealand and concluding the tournament with a two-all draw with Australia. jrnmarko@gmail.com