The 3×3 national wheelchair basketball team arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa on Thursday to participate in the 2022 Africa Commonwealth Games qualifiers slated for Saturday.
The Namibia Wheelchair Basketball Federation (NWBF) hosted its 3×3 high-performance camp in Windhoek in May this year, where it selected a national team to compete in the 2022 Commonwealth Games qualifiers at the Vodacom Mandeville Indoor Sports Centre in Johannesburg on Saturday.
The Africa Zone’s qualification tournament for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games 3×3 wheelchair basketball competition will have five men’s teams and two women’s teams competing to represent the zone in July next year.
The men’s category will consist of Gambia, Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda and host South Africa, while in the women’s category only host South Africa and Kenya will compete for top honours.
This will be the first time in the history of the Namibia National Paralympic Committee (NNPC) that a wheelchair basketball team will compete in the Commonwealth Games or an international qualifier.
Athletes representing Namibia at these championships are Ingo David, Termus Nangolo, Roodly Gowaseb and Kamenye Kapuma.
National men’s team coach Ryan Rahgoo, who is based in the United Kingdom, selected the team after a four-day high-performance camp held in Windhoek in May with the assistance of NWBF president and assistant coach, Isaac Nailenge.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions in the UK, Rahgoo was unable to join the team, but his second in command Nailange is leading the team with the assistance of Henock Hango.
In a voice note sent to the team on Friday, Rahgoo told the athletes this will be their first international participation and such opportunities provide growth. He called on the athlete to give it their all.
In an interview with Nampa on Friday, NNPC secretary-general Michael Hamukwaya commended federations for pushing athletes to participate in the different sport codes and also thanked NamPower for making the trip possible.
“NamPower has always been there for disability sports. This year they sponsored the high-performance camp and for the first time Namibia will participate in a 3×3 competition outside of the country,” Hamukwaya said.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
