Africa-Press – Namibia. Virinao Nguatjiti of the After School Wrestling Centre (ASC) won the overall wrestler of the year award following the National Wrestling Championships in Windhoek on Saturday.
Competing in the 60kg category, Nguatjiti won gold medals in the senior freestyle, senior Greco-Roman and u20 Greco-Roman categories, while he also won the junior wrestler of the year award.
Romio Goliath and Ester Abrahams, both of ASC, won the senior male and female wrestler of the year awards, while Rosalia Haimbodi of ASC won the junior female wrestler of the year award.
ASC won the wrestling club of the year award, while Luis Forcelledo Paz won the coach of the year award.
Friedrich Simon of Roots Gymnasium Wrestling Club and Candice Sambi of ASC won the male and female most improved wrestler awards, while Granville Swartz of ASC and Laura Theron of Windhoek Wrestling Club (WWC) won the male and female schools wrestler of the year awards.
Anke Erasmus won the administrator of the year award and Alvarro Eixab the referee of the year award.
Just over 100 wrestlers from five wrestling clubs from Khomas, Hardap, Erongo and Otjozondjupa regions participated at the championships, and the president of the Namibia Wrestling Federation Colin Steytler says he was delighted with the turnout.
“We had a record 110 wrestlers this year at the nationals, and Keetmanshoop couldn’t come, so we would have had about 120 wrestlers. We’re very very happy with the turnout,” he says.
Steytler says it was a successful year for Namibian wrestling.
“Esther Abrahams got a bronze medal at the African Games. We are very happy with that, while we had one gold, two silver and three bronze medals at the African Championships which was a good return.
“We also went to the Olympic qualifiers, unfortunately nobody qualified for the Olympics, but we went to South Africa for two tournaments and really dominated there, so we’re very happy with where we are.
“We have a five-year strategic plan for the 2028 Olympics, and we are hitting the targets really well at the moment,” he says.
Steytler was also pleased with the fact that wrestling will from 2025 be included as a school sport after getting the nod from the Namibia School Sport Union (NSSU).
“We managed to convince the NSSU to include wrestling as a school sport – it was never included in the past, so we’re very happy that now we can introduce what we call Wrestling for Fun at schools.
“It’s a baseline wrestling programme for children, which basically focuses on balance, movement, and a little bit of a strength exercise, so hopefully from school they can then join a club so that grassroots development can really grow,” he says.
Steytler was re-elected as president of the Namibia Wrestling Federation, while his committee members are Gabriel Gurirab (vice president), Anke Erasmus (secretary general), Linda Amadhila (deputy secretary general), Erik Theron (treasurer), Erika Theron (technical advisor) and Maggie Forcelledo (marketing director).
Meanwhile, the following national development team was selected that will prepare for the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal.
Norbell Shimwooshili, Lisias Shipopyeni, Petrus Haimbodi, Rosalia Haimbodi (all ASC), Christian Stassen, Dian Delport, Dwayne Tuoro, Henrico du Rand, Dawid du Toit (all WWC), Zasha Steenkamp and Givanno Beukes (Roots Gymnasium Wrestling Club) and Hermanus Hanse (Swakopmund Atlantic Wrestling Association.)
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