Zebaldt Ngaruka
Renamo Bucks’ netball team won the netball competition of Unokie Popina Kasume’s honorary tournament, which was held over the weekend at Khomasdal and Eros Rugby stadiums in Windhoek.
The honorary tournament, in its second edition, is primarily aimed at paying homage to the late Kasume, who was a promising young netball player and played for Khomas Nampol in the country’s top-tier netball league, Epukiro All Stars, and Renamo Bucks, amongst others.
The N$60 000 competition attracted 33 football and 26 netball teams.
In the first netball semi-final, Epukiro-based Otjimanangombe defeated Fine Young Stars from Erindiroukambe by a 30-23 scoreline, and booked their place in the final. Bucks then overcame the M-Dash Army netball team by 28-25 in the second semi-final to meet Otjimanangombe Ladies in the final.
Bucks, from Okombomi village, then stunned Otjimanangombe Ladies 29-22 in the final and retained the Unokie Popina Kasume Cup they won last year.
The champions pocketed N$10 000, a trophy and 12 gold medals, whereas Otjimanangombe took home a cash prize of N$5 000 and 12 silver medals as runners-up.
Fine Young Stars and M-Dash settled for a cash prize of N$2 500 each for coming third in the competition. In the football category, the One Love football team from Mariental lost 0-1 to Omusati region-based MPSH in the first semi-final. MPSH then booked their place in the final.
The second semi-final saw a highly-contested match between Fine Young Stars and TF Mafumhe.
TF Mafumhe is a team comprising Zimbabwean nationals who live in Namibia. Fine Young Stars won the match by a solitary goal, and secured a final spot against MPSH. However, the football finals did not take place due to the unavailability of a field.
The organising committee, under the leadership of Ngatuuane Hange, together with the remaining teams, decided to share the final cash prize of N$30 000 between the two finalists. Fine Young Stars and MPSH each received N$15 000.
“We couldn’t extend it to another weekend, as acquiring a playing ground in the capital is a mountain to climb,” said Hange.