Africa-Press – Namibia. The Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) held a press conference on the fourth edition of the National Youth Games last Thursday in Windhoek.
The National Youth Games serve as a platform to identify and select the Namibian team across 11 sport codes that will compete at the African Union Sport Council Region 5 Youth Games (AUSC Region 5) in Maputo, Mozambique this year.
The Games will deliver selection opportunities in athletics (including para-athletics and wheelchair racing), Special Olympics, basketball, boxing, football, judo, karate, netball, swimming, tennis, table tennis and volleyball through regional and sport-specific trials and championships scheduled for May this year.
According NSC Chief Administrator, Freddy Mwiya, N$3 million will be made available for both the National Youth Games and team Namibia’s participation at the AUSC Region 5 Games in Mozambique.
To select the team within the available budget, the commission has adopted a clustered competition model that reduces large-scale centralised hosting while maintaining a fair and transparent process.
The new model groups sport codes and regions into manageable competition hubs, reducing travel, accommodation and venue costs while enabling federations to run sport-specific trials to nominate athletes for the Namibian team.
Volleyball and basketball will use regional quotas across three competition zones, while aquatics selections will be based on national championship results and long-course season performances.
Boxing will hold formal trials to determine finalists, with quotas for both male and female athletes.
Special Olympics athletes will be selected during the national championships in Swakopmund in May, while other sports such as judo, tennis, table tennis, U/17 football, athletics, and para-athletics will hold trials across various regions, including Khomas, Windhoek, and Swakopmund.
“Failure to send a team to the AUSC Region 5 Youth Games will expose Namibia to fines and have negative repercussions for our country’s standing in regional sport,” said Mwiya.
Mwiya further appealed to corporate partners, philanthropists and the public to support Team Namibia, with contributions set to directly cover travel, accreditation and competition costs.
The Commission has committed to transparent and accountable processes for managing sponsorships and donations.
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