Namibia won an unexpected silver medal at the Zone Six Beach Volleyball Championships which recently took place at Lake Kariba in Zambia.
Namibia was represented by two men and one women’s team, of which all, except one player were under 19.
Since no u19 Zone 6 tournaments were offered in 2022, the Namibian Volleyball Federation (NVF) decided to give the u19 players an opportunity to gain international experience at the senior tournaments.
After a long and tiring drive of 28 hours from Windhoek via Katima Mulilo to the beautiful Lake Kariba, in Zambia, the Lück sisters, Romy (17) and Piroschka (14) managed to finish fifth in the women’s category.
In the men’s category Roman Dainat (16) and Max Krafft, who are both only 16, finished in ninth place overall.
The big surprise however came from the team of Jan-Eric Sack (25) and Fabian Biederlack (17) who managed to prevail against eleven other teams to reach the final before losing to a team from Botswana.
Winning an unexpected silver medal for Namibia was a big bonus for the team, as well as for the NVF beach director, Achim Lück, who accompanied the team, while it made up for all the effort, time put into training and travel, organisation and players and coaches finances.
During the closing ceremony Namibia was especially praised at the Zone 6 event as being a role model in youth development by the chairman of the Zambian Volleyball Association.