By Joe-Chintha Garises
KEETMANSHOOP, Sept. 2 — The Darts Federation of Namibia is hosting an international darts tournament in Keetmanshoop.
This is the first time that the town is hosting the tournament that started on 30 August with participating teams and supporters marching through the town.
Namibia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Zambia, and Lesotho are taking part in the competition.
With the Africa Darts Council formed on 25 August 2022, the Darts Federation will now be able to host its own Africa Cup of Champions tournaments.
“From there we believe most countries will be able to join world darts,” Meynard Moyo the president of the Zimbabwe darts federation said.
A lot of competition is expected at the ongoing games.
“We are excited and participants from the other countries are also excited to be in a different part of Namibia to host the games.
“The games are usually only hosted in Windhoek, Walvis Bay, or Swakopmund,” Elize De Waal who is the public relations officer of NamDaf and a player said.
The tournament is open to the public and anyone can join.
“The current games are mostly for team building and getting to know each other, more like friendlies,” Van Waal explained.
For the first time at darts competitions music will be played as it makes players relax and brings out the competition atmosphere, she emphasized.
The games will end with a prize-giving ceremony on 2 September 2022.
Hosting such tournaments in different towns of the country helps the federation scout new darts talent.
Currently, nine of the 23 team players on the national team are from the southern regions.
“There are a lot of good darts players out there but they cannot play because in the past the game was misinterpreted as a club game.
“I urge the youth to come back to the game as we as an organization are working to get back the real initiative of the game,” Buks Blaauw the president of the Namibian Darts Federation added.
