South African bowlers show accuracy
Lawn bowls
The prestigious 2023 African States bowling tournament was successfully held in Namibia after ten years.
The 2023 African States tournament, the continental championship of lawn bowls, was hosted in Windhoek at the TransNamib and Eros bowling clubs, where Namibia’s men and women each took on Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the tournament.A highlight of the tournament was when Marietjie van den Bergh, Diana Viljoen, Amanda Steenkamp and Elzaan de Vries won a gold medal for Namibia in the women’s fours division against Zimbabwe (silver) and South Africa (bronze) at the Eros club.
The public relations officer of the Namibia Bowling Association, Michelle Crawford, said: “We last had this tournament here in 2013. Hosting it now is amazing and seeing the players win medals is really exciting.”
“The standard of play was amazing and there was very little margin for error.”
Baven Balendra, who represented Botswana in the singles, said: “The competition in this tournament is really high, making it exciting. Namibia is pretty cold in winter, but we definitely had a good time here.”
In the men’s category, Namibia put up an amazing fight in a thrilling fours match against South Africa. The visitors in green and gold narrowly won 17-16, to win the gold medal and finish the tournament without a defeat.
In the final overall men’s standings, South Africa took the gold, Botswana the silver and Namibia walked away with the bronze. South Africa also claimed the gold in the overall women’s category, while Namibia took silver and Zimbabwe won the bronze.
In the men’s singles, Wayne Roberts (South Africa) won gold, Baven Balendra (Botswana) took silver and Cephas Kimwaki (Kenya) got the bronze.
In the men’s fours standings, South Africa claimed gold as they went undefeated in the tournament, Namibia took silver while Botswana settled for the bronze medal.
In the women’s pairs, Zambia won the gold, South Africa won silver and Namibia took the bronze.
Namibia Media Holdings’ digital channel Network Television (NTV) made sure to cover the prestigious event on channel 285 on DStv and 25 on GoTv. To check out highlights, go to Sport Wrap Facebook page.
With the 2023 World Outdoor Bowls Championship taking place in August, the tournament did Namibia a lot of good after taking on other countries.