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Bank Windhoek DOC volleyball tourney thrills fans

Bank Windhoek DOC volleyball tourney thrills fans

The Dome in Swakopmund turned into a volleyball fortress last weekend as 25 teams from across Namibia competed in the 2018 Bank Windhoek DOC Tournament.

The tournament was hosted by the Namibia Volleyball Federation (NVF). Khomas Nampol Volleyball Club (VC) and Namibian Defence Force (NDF) claim victory in the men’s and women’s divisions respectively.

A total of N$21,000 in prize money was at stake as teams from Oranjemund, Katima Mulilo, Rundu and Windhoek battled it out to claim the bragging rights.

In the women’s division, NDF cruised to the top of Group A and secured a semi-final spot after a five game winning streak. Eleven Warriors VC snatched up the second spot and also made it into the semi-finals.

Khomas Nampol VC emerged victorious after tightly contested Group B matches. Deutscher Turn und Sportverein (DTS) fought hard throughout the group stages and finished in second place. Both teams made it into the semi-finals.

The men’s division produced highly contested matches throughout the group stages. Seven teams in each group competed for the top two spots in order to advance to the semi-finals.

In Group A, last year’s champions, Khomas Nampol VC, once again put up a strong performance and topped the table. NAMPOWER took the second spot after they defeated first-time participants Oranjemund VC and Eleven Warriors VC.

Group B offered an even tighter competition with veteran champions NDF clinching enough victories to secure the top spot. Three teams scored 13 points in this group and it was decided that Navy VC from Walvis Bay was the team to move into the semi-finals due to more games won.

This left teams such as University of Namibia’s Main Campus and Katima Mulilo Campus Volleyball Clubs, disappointed.

The women’s semi-finals saw NDF battle it out against DTS in an intense thriller of a match which NDF eventually won. Khomas Nampol VC beat Eleven Warriors VC and secured a spot in the finals.

Meanwhile, in the men’s semi-finals, Khomas Nampol VC joined their female counterparts in the finals after they defeated Navy VC. NAMPOWER faced NDF whom they beat to move into the finals.

In the women’s division finals, NDF defeated Khomas Nampol 1:3 (19:25; 17:25; 25:19; 14:25). The men’s final lived up to its high expectations and was a thriller of a game which went the whole length of five sets.

The more experienced Khomas Nampol VC was faced with a fierce and aggressive Nampower who demonstrated great teamwork. After both teams had won two sets each, a tie-break was the deciding factor. Khomas Nampol’s experience came to the rescue as Nampower made too many errors towards the end, giving the set away 13:15.

Winners in both competitions walked away with trophies, gold medals and N$5000 in prize money as the runner up teams received silver medals and N$3 000 each. The bronze medals went to DTS (women) and NDF (men) secured N$ 2 000 in prize money while the fourth placed Eleven Warriors VC (women) and Navy VC (men) were awarded N$ 1 000 each.

“With the help of Bank Windhoek as our main sponsor, we were once again able to organise and execute this great competition and send the teams off with their well-deserved prize money. For the first time ever, we had live online coverage of the event through our media partner TeeVee Namibia which was amazing advertisement for our sport and everybody involved in making this tournament a great success,”” said the President of the Namibian Volleyball Federation, Hilary Imbuwa.

The DOC Open Tournament has a long history in the Namibian volleyball landscape and has for years been the first major highlight of the indoor season.


Caption: Khomas Nampol Volleyball Club (VC) players all smiles after being crowned the 2018 Bank Windhoek DOC Tournament champions.


About The Author

Sport Contributor

The Economist does not have a dedicated sport reporter. This designation is used for several contributors who want their sport stories in the Economist. Experience has taught us that companies usually want their sport sponsorships published prominently, being the reason for a sports category. It now also carries general sport items but only those with direct Namibian relevance. - Ed.