South Africa reigns supreme

South Africa reigns supreme Tournament organisers pleased with outcome The recently held beach volleyball competition in Swakopmund has ended on a high note, with neighbouring South Africa emerging victorious. The South African beach volleyball women and men teams dominated and clinched both sections of the inaugural Zone Six Beach Volleyball competition in Swakopmund.

The final of the female competition was an all-South African affair with Christen Del Carme and Liezel Pietersen taking on Palesa Masinga and Margaret Springer at the Dome.

Del Carme and Pietersen defeated Masinga and Springer 2-0 and clinched the title by winning the first set 21-13 and the second 23-21.

The South African ladies eliminated their Namibian counterparts in the semi-final round. Rosi Hennes and Lizette Rotcher (Nam) defeated Kim Seebach and Stephanie Palmert (Nam) 2-1 in the third place play-off.

Leo Williams and Clinton Stemmet (South Africa) faced Bocao Nagafela and Odirele Sibanda (Botswana) in the men's final.

Williams and Stemmet defeated Nagafela and Sibanda 2-1 in the tightly contested affair. The South Africans won the first set 21-19 and the deciding third set 15-9. Botswana won the second set 21-16.

Masinga and Springer (SA) defeated Rosi Hennis and Liezette Rotcher (Namibia) 2-1 (21-15) (23-25) and (15-6). Del Carme and Pietersen (SA) also defeated Kim Seeback and Stephanie Palmert (Namibia) 2-1 (21-16) (16-21) and (15-9) in the semi-final round of the ladies competition.

Williams and Stemmert (SA) defeated Deadrick Watch and Colen Peter (Zim) 2-0 (21-9) (21-15). Sibanda and Nagafela (Botswana) defeated Jonas Mashagela and Rafapa Mothobi (SA) 2-0 (21-13) (22-20) in the semi-final round of the men's competition. Mashagela and Mothobi (SA) defeated Watch and Peter (Zim) 2-1 in the third place play-off.

Eight female teams and nine male teams from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe competed at the competition. All games were decided best out of three.

Khalid Cassam the general secretary of the zone expressed his satisfaction with the event. “The organisation, standard of the competition and the games were good. The players produced some excellent displays. Botswana is improving gradually and we need more competitions to qualify national teams for the World Championships in 2017.”

Cassam confirmed that Zimbabwe will host the next Zone 6 Volleyball competition. “We will have our general assembly in March 2017 to decide in which city the games will be hosted. The event is usually contested in December and we might look at changing the time,” he concluded.

The 2017 Federation for International Beach Volleyball (FIVB) Beach Volleyball Championships will held in the Austrian capital Vienna from 28 July to 6 August. Forty eight women's and men's teams will fight for the title of world champions and compete for one million dollars in prize money at the 11th tournament of its kind in beach volleyball history.



OTIS FINCK