Windhoek
The third of the five series Timeout Beach Series competition produced fireworks at the DTS Beach Arena, south of Windhoek last weekend.
The Word Press Namibia Winter Classic was the second time the event was staged at the DTS fields this year, following the huge success of the Vita Juice Mixed Grand Slam in April this year.
Players grilled each other in five different categories: Men, Women, Youth Boys (U18), Youth Girls (U18) and Mixed Social 4-a-side.
The participating 32 teams were not just playing for claiming the Word Press Namibia Winter Classic title, but were vigorously fighting for N$6 000 prize money at stake, sponsored by Word Press Namibia.
In the 4-a-side category, 10 teams battled it out in 2 groups of a 5 round-robin format in trying to reach the finals. At the end of the pool games, the top 4 teams carved themselves a place in the semi-finals with the quartet of MeatCo Paradise, Little Britain, Phoenix Y and DMAN Productions all going through, having won all their matches to stake a claim in the semi-finals.
In the first semi-final, Phoenix Y defeated MeatCo Paradise 2:1 (15:12, 12:15, 7:6) while Little Britain beat DMAN Productions 2:0 (18:16, 15:6). In the 3rd place play-off, Little Britain defeated Meatco Paradise 2:0 for the bronze medal.
DMAN productions proved too strong for Phoenix Y, taking the match 2:1, to clinch victory in the final and ultimately become Word Press Namibia Winter Classic 4-a-side mixed champions.
The youth girls’ competition attracted 4 teams in a round robin. Ranjana Metzger and Jasmin Baas went through all their 3 games without dropping a set, with honorary juniors Kirsten Schreiber and Nicole Bohn claiming 2 out of 3 of their games, to finish 2nd.
Carmen Dieckmann and Lara Loos had an epic match against Movi to win the head-to-head clash for the remaining 3rd place, certainly a master class in Under-18 beach volleyball.
The combination of Baas and Metzger must start looking for new challenges by playing in the women’s category in the near future. In the youth boys division, it was a rematch between the 1st and 2nd placed teams from the Tropizone Kalahari Open a month ago.
The final match was to be decided between the team Danilo von Ludwiger and his partner Armandus Roettcher pitted against the pairing of Andriko Boehringer and Dominik Witt.
This match saw von Ludwiger/Roettcher reverse the result from the last tourney to win the head-to-head match 22:20, 21:13. Third place went to Nikolas and Achim Gerber, who beat the combination of Matthaeus Jauss and Philip by 2:1.
In the men’s competition, 8 teams were divided into 2 groups of 4 that attracted favourites in each group, with the likes of Jan-Eric Sack, Brandon de Jager, Fabian Pfeifer and Michael Sickel all emerging unscathed.
Other notable showing in the pool stages came from Bentje Mehnert and Bernhard Schurz, the latter coming to Namibia especially for this competition from South Africa. They won 2 of their 3 games.
The re-united partnership of Arno Pack and Heiko Prior saw them comfortably winning 2 of their 3 matches. Semi-finals pitted Sickel/Pfeifer against Schurz/Mehnert with the former pair victorious 2:0 (21:19, 21:15). The second semi-final between Pack/Prior and Sack/De Jager saw the latter coming out tops 2:0 (21:15, 21:14).
The bronze medal match only took 2 sets with Schurz/Mehnert taking a comfortable victory (21:16, 21:14), giving Mehnert his 1st podium finish as a senior athlete.
The 1st set went point-for-point to 20:21, with a very sporting gesture from Pfeifer who admitted a net-touch which the referee did not see, handing the 1st set to Sack/De Jager at 20:22 but in the 2nd set Sickel/Pfeifer came out of the blocks, claiming a comfortable lead, which they held on for dear life with some spectacular defensive plays to take the second set 21:10.
In the decisive 3rd set, the trend continued with an early lead for Sickel/Pfeifer, not giving Sack/De Jager any opportunity to come back, winning the final set 15:8, to become Word Press Namibia Winter Classic champions.
In the women’s competition, six teams entered in two pools of 3 teams, with the top 2 in each pool advancing to the semi-finals. As it turned out, pre-tourney favourite Rosi Hennes and Lizette Roettcher comfortably won all their pool games to reach the semi-finals.
Simone von Wietersheim and Anita Kinder teamed up to dispatch the young combination of Carmen Gaugler and Carmen Curschmann, while the pairing of Bank Windhoek Nam Open Champions Michaela Boehringer and Kristin Schulz suffered a surprise defeat at the hand of Hennes/Roettcher 2:0 (21:7, 21:10).
The Boehringer/Schulz combination regained their form, winning comfortably 2:0 to claim a consolation prize for the bronze medal.
In the final, a rematch of the Tropizone Aqua Kalahari Open, it took just 3 sets to decide the winner. A slow start for Von Wietersheim/Kinder saw them losing 21:10 in the first set, but quickly recovered in a nail-biting 2nd set to take a 21:19 lead – setting up a deciding third set.
The tie went point-for-point all the way to Von Wietersheim/Kinder who took a decisive lead winning 15:12, to take the title of Word Press Namibia Winter Classic ladies champions.