The Africa Cup Inline Hockey Tournament will take place on Monday, 21 to Saturday, 26 May 2018 at The Dome in Swakopmund with Bank Windhoek once again be a major sponsor.
In its second consecutive year, the tournament is billed a truly international event with players from Namibia, South Africa, Brazil, India, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Spain and Italy, having confirmed their participation.
Seven teams will compete in a total of 26 games during the week. Each game will consist of a seven-minute warmup, five-minute halftime and 2 x 18-minute stop time periods. All teams will play each other in the round-robin stages.
“After the round-robin stages are completed, the seventh seeded team will be eliminated from the competition on Friday evening. The top four teams will move on to the semi-finals, where the winners will play for gold, the runner-up for silver and the third seed for bronze. Seeds five and six will have a playoff contest for the fifth place,” said the tournament’s organiser, Dave Hammond.
The Namibian men’s national team are the defending champions. At the inaugural championship event held at the same venue in 2017, the Namibian men’s team beat the Labeda Bulls, a team consisting of American, Canadian and Spanish National players with a few local men in the mix, to win the championship.
Two local and three international referees will officiate the matches to maintain the world-class standard of the tournament. They will also conduct a two-day international referee clinic before the tournament commences, aimed at developing and improving the skillset of local referees. Attendees have been specifically selected and will be put through their paces with practical and theory sessions.
Entry fee is N$50 per day or N$200 for the week and tickets are available online on TIXSA, The Dome’s ticketing platform or from the box office stationed at the event. The entire tournament with live commentary will be streamed by TeeVee, a local company with extensive experience in broadcasting action sports.
Last year, over 8 000 online spectators tuned in while another 800 sat rink side per day. To date, the tournament has had more than 300 000 YouTube views worldwide. “These numbers have shown us that this tournament has both local and international appeal. Bank Windhoek believes that sport brings people together and because this tournament contributes to sport and youth development in our country, we are pleased to be associated with it. We wish all the participants the best,” said Bank Windhoek’s Head of Corporate Social Investments, Sponsorships and Events, Sanet de Waal.
For more information, please contact Dave Hammond at cell: 081 593 3514 or send an email to africacup.info@gmail.com