Namibian archers perform at Africa Championship

Thirty-two archers from the Namibian Archery in Schools Program (NASP) participated in the African Championship in the Western Cape, South Africa.

The archery teams from the National Archery in the Schools Program of Namibia fared very well in both the individual and team divisions at the recent NASP Africa Tournament against teams from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana,
The tournament consisted of three separate competitions. The top 16 school archers from Namibia competed in the Africa Championship and a development team also consisting of 16 archers participated in the Development Challenge. A unique rule is that each team of 16 archers must include at least 4 girls.
This year the adult teams from NASP competed for the first time. The adult teams consist of parents and instructors from the NASP community and is called the Adult Archery Group (AAG).
Teams participate in both bull’s eye rounds and animal rounds. Bull’s eye rounds are shot on an 80cm target and animal rounds is a hunting simulation on animal targets at various distances. The tournament highlight is the final Bulls eye knock out rounds between teams. The NASP® Namibia national team held its composure under very high pressure in the knock out rounds to come from behind and snatch the silver medal from Zim-babwe by qualifying for the final against South Africa.
Led by Delron Gaoseb in excellent form with two consecutive full 50s in the first two rounds, Namibia gave South Africa a run for their money or shall we say arrows. Each and every archer from Namibia can be proud and stand tall.
Namibia went into this tournament well prepared with an intensive mental training session for teams held in Windhoek. Archery is not only a very technical sport; it is also a tough mental sport.
A big part of NASP Namibia’s success and growth as a sport code is thorough preparation and mental training of teams. Exciting news is that this year NASP Namibia will do an official audit of their participation in this tournament by a sport psychologist. The lessons learned will then be a platform from where a high performance group and training within schools archery is planned to be established. Any parent or school that wants to become part of the NASP Namibia family can contact Mr Dewaal Louw at 081 221 1245.
Excellent news for Namibia is that the 2020 annual NASP® Africa Tournament will take place in Swakopmund at The Dome. A Date is yet to be set.
The following are the Namibian team and individual results:
Team results:
Bulls eye rounds silver medal
Animal rounds bronze medal
Individual results:
Delron Gaoseb (Community Hope School) animal rounds gold medal, overall boys bronze medal
The Development team results:
Bull’s eye rounds bronze medal
Animal rounds bronze medal
Individual results:
Le Roux Everson (Walvis Bay Private School) bulls eye rounds silver medal
Hennie Nell (Elnatan) animal round bronze medal
The AAG team results:
Bulls eye rounds silver medal
Individual results:
Anja von Watzdorf, Woman’s gold
Francois Marais, Men’s silver
Delron Gaoseb, Denzel Nanub (both from Community Hope School) and Gerhard Koen (Keetmanshoop Private School) where chosen for the NASP Africa Federation team of 16 archers.