Namibian lawn bowlers, John-Paul Fouche and Carel Olivier, on Friday registered their first win in the men’s pair section at the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Victoria Park in Leamington Spa in Birmingham, England.

Namibia, who are in Group A of the men’s pairs, alongside Wales, Norfork Island, Northern Ireland and Jamaica, narrowly lost their opening match of the competition 14-16 against Wales.

In their second match of the day the Namibians were too strong for their opponents Jamaica, whom they defeated 33- 4.

At the end of day one’s action, Namibia was leading the leader’s board with three points, while Norfolk Island, Wales and Jamaica were behind them respectively, but also on three points.

Northern Ireland was the only team that did not yet play a match.

In an interview with Nampa after the match, Fouche said they were happy with the results of the day but they have a huge mountain to climb if they are to make it out of the group stages.

“Only two teams will go out of the group and therefore we need to beat Northern Ireland, which is not going to be an easy match as they are also favourites to win the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games because they are a strong team,” he said.

Olivier told this agency that their goal at the moment is to be level-headed and take it one match at a time.

“We really played well today but our focus is now on tomorrow’s games, where we hope we can once again give it our all and probably make it out of the group stages,” Olivier said.

Namibia will play Northern Ireland in their second match of the competition on Saturday afternoon

Source: The Namibian Press Agency