Under-20 team departs for Angola

Under-20 team departs for Angola NAMPA

Team Namibia left for Luanda, Angola on Tuesday for the 2016 African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region Five Under-20 Youth Games, which start on Thursday.

The games end on 19 December.

Namibia will compete in football (women), basketball (men), track and field events, boxing, netball, swimming and tennis.

A delegation of 150 people, including 120 able-bodied and disabled athletes, is representing the country.

General team manager Musutua Tjeripo, who is from the Namibia Sports Commission, told Nampa on Tuesday the athletes had been in a training camp for the past week and were ready to compete.

“We had to cut the team from over 200 athletes to 120 due to financial constraints, but we are going to fight for medals,” he said.

Coaches, administrators and medical personnel will accompany the athletes.

Tjeripo was confident that despite having a smaller team, they are going to improve on Namibia’s last performance in the 2014 Region Five games held in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

Namibia ended fifth overall with 45 medals (seven gold, 15 silver and 23 bronze).

South Africa were the overall winners with 121 medals of which 64 were gold, followed by Zimbabwe with 92 medals (18 gold); Angola third with 20 medals (11 gold); and Botswana fourth with 32 medals (eight gold).