Ending the year with a bang

The NIIHA champs were once again dominated by the Coastal Pirates.
Ester Kamati
The highlight of the Namibian inline hockey calendar, the Namibia Ice and Inline Hockey Association (NIIHA) champs, where hosted over the past weekend at The Dome in Swakopmund, with the best four teams fighting it out in the various age divisions to go for gold and the Theo’s SuperSpar Trophy!

Once again the Coastal Pirates dominated the NIIHA champs, winning gold in seven out of the 10 available age divisions.

Spirits were running high, as the players fought for puck possession, delivered precision passes and smashed the puck into their opponents net!

Most games in the finals were simply dominated by Coastal Pirates, and their opponents had to settle for silver, as they did not manage to score at all.

Coastal Pirates took the honours in the under-12, u-14, u-16, u-18 ladies, ladies masters and open divisions.

However, the final game in the u-8 division between Kamikaze Red and Coastal Pirates Black ended in a 1-1 draw. The game went into extra-time for another 10 minutes and the score remained tied. Play was then continued for another 10 minutes, with Kamikaze Red scoring the golden goal and emerging as the champions in this division!

Kamikaze took home the championship trophies in the u-8 and senior divisions, while Cazadores had to accept several silver and bronze medals as runners-up.

During the official medal ceremony the top scorer, top assist and top goaltender awards were also handed out to the best three players in each age division.

The top girl player was Corinna Weimann with 38 assists and the top male player was Wim van der Plas with 30 assists.

The top ladies scorers were Christine Röttcher and Nicolai Bates from U8 Kamikaze, who scored 50 goals each during the season, followed by open player Dave Hammond with 45 goals for the season.

The referee award of the year went to Hanjo Zimny, with the most improved referees being Sean Lichti and Armandus Röttcher. In the up-and-coming category, referees JD Gerber and John Ipinge were awarded for their refereeing efforts during 2019.



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Namibian Sun 2024-11-24

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