Inline Hockey gears up for the Africa Cup at The Dome

WINDHOEK, 16 MAY – The Africa Cup Inline Hockey Tournament will take place from Monday, 21 to Saturday, 26 May 2018 at The Dome in Swakopmund.

This year marks the sophomore year for a tournament that will attract a mixture of players from Namibia, South Africa, Brazil, India, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Spain and Italy.

Seven teams will compete in a total of 26 games during the week, with each game consisting a seven-minute warmup, five-minute halftime and two 18-minute stop time periods. All teams will play each other in the round-robin stages.

“After the round-robin stages are completed, the seventh seeded team will be eliminated from the competition on Friday evening. The top four teams will move on to the semi-finals, where the winners will play for gold, for silver and bronze. Seeds five and six will have a playoff contest for the fifth place,” said the tournament’s organiser, Dave Hammond.

The Namibian men’s national will be looking to maintain their grip on the championship of this particular Tournament, after beating Labeda Bulls during the inaugural championship event held at the same venue in 2017. Labeda Bulls consisted American, Canadian and Spanish National players with a few locals.

Two local and three international referees will officiate the matches to maintain the world-class standard of the tournament. A two-day international referee clinic will be conducted before the tournament commences, aimed at developing and improving the skill-set of local referees. Attendees of that particular clinic have been specifically selected and will be put through their paces with practical and theory sessions.

The Entry fee is N$50 per day or N$200 for the week and tickets are available online on TIXSA, The Dome’s ticketing platform or from the box office stationed at the event. The entire tournament with live commentary will be streamed by TeeVee, a local company with extensive experience in broadcasting action sports.

Last year, over 8 000 online spectators watched the event, in addition to an average of 800 that sat rink-side per day.

To date, the tournament has had more than 300 000 YouTube views worldwide.

“These numbers have shown us that this tournament has both local and international appeal. Bank Windhoek believes that sport brings people together and because this tournament contributes to sport and youth development in our country, we are pleased to be associated with it. We wish all the participants the best,” said Bank Windhoek’s Head of Corporate Social Investments, Sponsorships and Events, Sanet de Waal.

For more information, send an email to africacup.info@gmail.com

NDN Staffer