Word Press volley tourney delivers

The third Timeout Beach Series 2016 events took place last Saturday at DTS Beach Arena, Windhoek.
The Word Press Namibia Winter Classic was the second time a competition was held at the DTS this year, after the huge success of the Vita Juice Mixed Grand Slam in April 2016.
The 5 categories were: Men’s, Women’s, Youth Boys (U18), Youth Girls (U18) & Mixed Social 4-a-side. At the event the32 teams were not just playing for becoming the Word Press Namibia Winter Classic Champions but according to the organisers the teams were also fighting for N$6,000 of prizes in total.
In the men’s competition, 8 teams divided into 2 groups of 4. The favourites in each group, namely Jan-Eric Sack and Brandon de Jager, as well as Fabian Pfeifer and Michael Sickel came through all their games undefeated.
Other strong performances in the pool stages were from Bentje Mehnert and Bernhard Schurz, the latter coming to Namibia especially just for this competition from South Africa, winning 2 of their 3 games.
Also, the re-united partnership of Arno Pack and Heiko Prior after 18 months away from beach volleyball competitions, winning 2 of their 3 matches. Semi-finals saw Sickel/ Pfeifer play Schurz/ Mehnert, with Sickel/Pfeifer winning 2:0 (21:19, 21:15). The second semi-final was between Pack/Prior and Sack/de Jager with Sack/de Jager winning 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 first podium-finish as a senior athlete.
In the women’s competition, 6 teams played in two pools of 3 teams, with the top 2 in each pool going into semi-finals. Again, the tournament favourites Rosi Hennes and Lizette Roettcher, comfortably won all their pool games, to reach the semi-final place. Simone von Wietersheim and Anita Kinder then went to beat Hennes/Roettcher in a nail biting final to take title of Word Press Namibia Winter Classic ladies champions.