CAVB Beach VB Continental Cup begins In Namibia

CAVB

More than 40 African Countries will fight for one spot per gender at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016 in the very popular Beach Volleyball. Namibia will once again host the first round in Windhoek over the weekend.

Angola, Zimbabwe and host Namibia will play in a country vs country format, with the top 2 countries moving on to the next round. Each National Federation will take part with 2 teams (2 players per team) per gender, meaning there will be 4 games per match for ladies and men respectively. In case of a draw a golden set (only up to 15 points) will be played to determine the winning nation.

Officials from Uganda, Algeria and Lesotho will supervise the competition which will be held at the DTS Sports Ground in Olympia from Friday to Sunday. The first matches will start Friday morning 09h00 with the last matches being played on Sunday afternoon.

The Namibian Team consist of the following players:

Ladies:
Team A: Simone von Wietersheim/Rosi Hennes
Team B: Kim Seebach/Stephanie Palmhert

Men:
Team A: Tin Hlupic/Brendon de Jager
Team B: Jan Eric Sack/Roman von Ludwiger

“Especially the teams from Angola are traditionally very strong and our young team will have to fight hard”, says James Verrinder, Namibian National Beach Volleyball Coach, “but we play on our home soil, which should be a big advantage”. “Zimbabwe has the same players as 4 years ago, and there were some tough matches” Heiko Kesselmann added, who is Director of Beach Volleyball in Namibia and local organizer of this competition.

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Namibia U19 Beach Teams Jet To World Championship In Portugal

Namibia’s U/19 Beach Volleyball Boys and Girls Teams are on their way to Portugal to take part in the FIVB U/19 Beach Volleyball World Championships to be held from 29 July to 03 August 2014. The team consists of Kim Seebach/Stephanie Palmhert and Jan Eric Sack/Roman von Ludwiger as well as their coach James Verrinder.

Kim & Stephanie have been playing Beach Volleyball now for 3 years and have shown some great skills. They biggest achievement was winning a Silver medal earlier this year in Ghana at the African Qualification tournament towards the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing. The second place among all African countries gained them a spot at the Youth Games in Nanjing in August, where they will be part of the Namibian Youth Olympic Team, the junior version of the Olympic Games.

Kim & Stephanie recently managed to claim a third place in the Namibian Senior Beach Volleyball Tournament. They qualified for the World Championships in Entebbe/Uganda as one of the top 4 teams in Africa.

The World Championships in Porto will be the first World Championships for Jan & Roman. Since last year, these two have managed to take their skills to a new level and have developed into one of the best teams on the Namibia National Beach Volleyball Tour reaching 2nd place in the recent Interpack/DTS Beach Volleyball Tournament.

Jan & Roman qualified for the World Champs by winning the Zonal Qualification tournament earlier this year and finishing 4th at the African U19 Beach Volleyball Cup held in Entebbe, Uganda on the shores of Lake Victoria in May this year.

Namibia U19 Beach Teams Jet To World Championship In Portugal

James Verrinder has been coaching the Namibian National teams since last year December. Coming from England, where he has spent most of his life with sports, especially Volleyball, he is a professional coach for the DTS Soccer & Beach Volleyball division. He is himself a player with great international experience. James will be travelling with the team to Portugal as head of delegation and acting as manager and coach for both teams.

The event will consist of a main draw of 36 teams (six pools of six teams with the top four teams advancing to the single elimination final phase), comprising six teams per gender per FIVB Confederation (with a maximum of one team per gender per country) and two teams per gender for the host country.

“We do not expect the teams to win any medals as Africa is still lacking 20 years of experience compared to the rest of the world, but maybe we can win a match or two and finish as best African country”, said Heiko Kesselmann, Director for Beach Volleyball Namibia. “It is however only with the financial support of Namibian companies, such as Benthin, G-Rail, Pennypinchers, Forklift & Allied, Cymot & Danric as well as private sponsors like BROWN, Dorle Verrinder Dietitian and the DTS Sports Club, that our teams can grow and develop into one of the top teams in world” he added.

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