Beach volleyball players book tickets for Croatia

The Namibian U21 beach volleyball players have qualified for this year’s junior world championships that will be staged by Croatia in June. Tin Hlupic and Gerard Fischer came third, thus making the grade along with Burundi and Egypt in qualifier matches that were held in Windhoek. The Namibian youngsters, who participated in the world youth championships (U19) in Cyprus last year, beat their opponents from Zimbabwe and Gabon to again secure their tickets to Europe.
In the girls continental qualifying tournament, only two other nations showed up in Windhoek to compete with the hosts that were represented by Maike Brandt and Mareike Talkenberg. The young Namibians, who are both still under 19, outclassed the visitors from Zimbabwe and Gabon to clinch top spot. In Croatia, however, the Namibian Volleyball Federation (NVF) will probably field its top U21 players, Julia Laggner and Saskia Henckert. The U21 African Beach Volleyball Cup was integrated with the National Beach Volleyball Tour which is sponsored by Kia Namibia.
In the Maerua Superspar Tournament, the third event in the 2013 Kia Namibia National Beach Volleyball Tour. NVF vice president, Joel Matheus, and the coach of the Egyptian U21 team, Ahmed Amr Atta, formed the best team of the day. In the final they beat Achim Lück and Peter Brinkmann in straight sets. Namibian youngster Gero Talkenberg and South African referee Giovanni Bake came third. Wiebke Höritzauer and Antje Kesselmann, two local players, took top honours in the women’s category. Last year’s overall champions won the final against Anita Kinder and Simone von Wietersheim in three sets. Maike Brandt and Teja Lück finished third.