2016, the year that was It''s a wrap for the Sport Wrap pages that brought you exciting local, regional and international news every Monday. Firstly, let me honour all the sportsmen and -women who worked tirelessly to achieve what they achieved in this year. It was not an easy one for most of the athletes and definitely not for Namibian sports, but in spite of all the circumstances we were faced with, we can stand high and say WELL DONE to the Namibian sportsmen and -women.
The year started off on a slow pace in sports, as most of us focused on who will make it to the world showpiece, the Olympic and Paralympic Games, a journey that was rough here and there, especially for the able-bodied athletes as we were all hoping to be well represented… but things did not go as we wished.
In football we didn''t expect much as we all knew that the early-year competition (NFA Cup) was not going to take place but we waited eagerly to see our mighty Brave Warriors defend their Cosafa Cup at home.
The cricket boys were probably the shining team in the cricket fraternity when they ended seventh at the world cup this year.
And then, the hockey girls also managed to beat South Africa in their own backyard. A team that is the powerhouse of hockey in Africa.
This is just a recap of what I am referring to when I talk about the year 2016, but before I go further to praise all our sports people, let me not take away the shine from our U-17s who won the U-17 Cosafa Cup this year.
What the young players emulated at that competition is an indication that we are heading in the right direction and soon we will be a force to be reckoned with in football.
There are so many great achievements I cannot finish pointing out, but bottom line is we are wrapping up this year with a great sport history.
I know the funding issue has not come easy in sports and it is really sad that even the ministry of sports has to put on hold some of its projects, because there is no money. However, despite such a situation I must applaud the different sport codes that made sure that they have their activities running and who continued to look for sponsorship.
We have also had some great sport stories, and I am pointing out a specific story “From Dust to Gold” a story that caught a lot of people''s attention and empathised with where our very own gold medallist Ananias Shikongo lives.
As much as journalists are blamed for everything that is published, those in sports have once again shown that we are able to change societies with the stories we write.
Being awarded as the top and first female sports journalist in print this year has also triggered a sense of determination and hard work in myself and to inspire more females to take up this male-dominated field.
Let''s celebrate what we have achieved this year, and learn much from our down falls.
Julius Indongo has brought us so much excitement so let his achievement of winning two world titles be the reason why we are celebrating the little that sport was able to produce this year.
Let us look ahead of 2017 and hope for the best and start the year with a spirit of working together and a spirit of winning.
What we have achieved in just this year alone, should serve as a wake-up call, either to show us that we need more action in sports to produce the best, or to tell us that we have the potential and just need to nurture such and we will be the shining stars.
I know I do not like how some things were handled this year, but we can''t mourn about what we wanted to achieve which never worked out, but look forward to what is next.
Let next year be another exciting year of sports, and hopefully our leaders will rescue us in this financial crisis that has hit us so hard.
I thank you all for your support and time in reading Sport Wrap. It was an exciting year from us and until we meet again next year, it''s BYE for now.
kaino@namibiansun.com