U18-Girls scoop silver at 3×3 Botswana Basketball tourney
The Namibian U18 Basketball Girls won silver medals at the 3×3 Young Lions Cup in Botswana over the weekend.
The tournament was organised by the International Basketball Foundation (IBF), and Namibia managed to beat countries like Burundi, Botswana, Seychelles and Swaziland. Only Zimbabwe was able to beat the Namibian team consisting of Nina Simao, Helena Shuumbwa, Idah Angolo and Petrina Aron.
The boys participated with a younger U17 team and finished 6th out of 9 teams against their older opponents. All eight Namibian players come from the Basketball Artists School (BAS) Foundation in Katutura and qualified through tournaments held in different regions of the country.
Ramah Mumba, Malakia Matias and Martin Hamata accompanied the players as representatives of the Namibian Basketball Federation (NBF). The Young Lions Cup under the motto “Basketball for good“ included a leadership workshop and taught the young athletes how to be active leaders in their communities and how to live a healthy lifestyle.
NBF Development Officer Malakia Matias said: “Integrating sport together with life skills adds more value into developing young players making responsible decisions within their lives.” 3×3 player Tiree Toromba added, “It was great that it was not only about basketball, we really learned a lot from the life skills sessions.” 3×3 is a new discipline that will be played at the next Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. Compared to traditional 5-on-5 basketball, less players and only one hoop are required.
Caption: From left to right: Tiree Toromba, Helena Shuumbwa, Pedro Pasile, Idah Angolo, Mantius Amukoshi, Nina Simao, Gerson van Ster, Petrina Aron.
