Staff Reporter
The highlight of the Namibian Inline Hockey calendar, the NIIHA Championships, was hosted over the past weekend with the four best teams on aggregate points earned during the annual club Tournaments fighting it out in the various age divisions to go for gold and the Theo’s Superspar Trophy!
Once again the Coastal Pirates dominated the tournament, winning seven out of ten available age divisions. Spirits were running high, as the players fought for puck possession, precision passes and finishing with the puck in the opponents net.
The Coastal Pirates took the honours and won the U12, U14, U16, U18 , Ladies, Ladies Masters and Open divisions.
However, the final game in the U8 division between Kamikaze Red and Coastal Pirates Black ended as a draw with one goal each on the scoreboard. The game went into extra time for another 10 min and the draw remained.
Play was continued for another 10 min, with Kamikaze Red scoring the golden goal and emerging as the champion in this division.
Kamikaze took home the championship trophies in the U8 and Seniors division whereas Cazadores had to accept several silver and bronze medals as runners-up.
During the official medal ceremony the top scorer, top assist and top goaltender awards were also handed out to the best three players in each age division, however the absolute top girl player was Corinna Weimann with 38 assists and the top male player was Wim van der Plas with 30 assists. The absolute top Ladies scorer was Christine Röttcher with 50 goals scored during the season and Nicolai Bates from U8 Kamikaze scoring 50 goals as well, followed by Open player Dave Hammond with 45 goals for the season.
The referee award of the year went to Hanjo Zimny, with the most improved referees being Sean Lichti and Armandus Röttcher. In the up and coming category, referees JD Gerber and John Ipinge were awarded for their refereeing efforts during 2019.
Attached please find the actual score sheet of the NIIHA Champs, as well as the NIIHA Champs Results and the B-Division Results for 2019.