SKW and Cohen FC retain titles
Dirk Schachtsiek, the most sucessfull Fistball player of recent years, in action at the Bank Windhoek National Fistball Cup.
The final Fistball tournament of the year was marked by the participation of German fistball superstar, Dirk Schachtsiek.
SKW found the going tough as they set out to defend their title in the A League of the competition.
After losing to Team Schachtsiek, which was led by Germany’s most successful Fistball player of recent times, in the preliminary round, the Windhoek team had to play a qualifying game to make it into the final of the cup competition, where they also faced Team Schachtsiek.
SKW took the lead early on, building a five point lead by half time.
Team Schachtsiek, however, came back and equalised the score at 27:27 with one minute to go in the match.
The good defensive play by veteran player, Stefan Grögli, kept SKW in the game at that stage. In addition, an unforced error by Team Schachtsiek allowed SKW to win the game and the Bank Windhoek National Cup.
The SFC team managed to end the tournament in third place with their best performance of the year.
The B League of the competition remained the domain of Cohen FC 3, who won the title for the seventh time in a row.
They emerged victorious from a close and exciting final against SFC2.
After taking an early lead, Cohen lost momentum towards the end of the first half when SFC 2 managed to equalise the score.
During the second half of the game, the lead changed hands a couple of times with neither team managing to break away and take command of the game.
Unforced errors in the dying minutes of the game cost SFC 2 the game by a narrow margin of 24:26.
As is custom at the last tournament of the season, the Fistball Association of Namibia (FAN) awarded the Player of the Year trophy at a prize-giving event after the cup final, which went to Michael Baas.
This is the fourth time that Baas won the award. The Junior Player of the Year (U18) award went to Nikolai Hof, who represented Namibia at the U18 European Championships in July this year.
The awards were sponsored by Danric Auto.
While no official Fistball tournaments are planned during the summer months, the U18 national team will continue with their preparations for the U18 World Champions, which will be hosted in Brazil in April 2014.
The next official tournament of FAN, will be played in February at a date that will be announced closer to the time.
