MTC rewards women’s hockey team

Namibia will represent Africa at the World Cup
Rovaldo Kavanga
Rivaldo Kavanga



MTC on Friday showed their appreciation for Namibia’s national women’s hockey team by gifting the whole team and the coaching staff brand-new iPhones.

Speaking at the handover ceremony was MTC’s chief of human capital and corporate affairs, Tim Ekandjo.

“The ladies did us very proud, qualifying for the world cup. Where do you hear of teams qualifying for the world except for rugby after every four years? This is significant,” Ekandjo said.

Team captain Magreth Mengo said: “It is an honour to have a sponsor like MTC on board and keeping true to your mandate of making the connection. We are the African champions; now we are going to connect with the rest of the world.”

The donation follows the team’s qualification for the next Indoor World Cup, which will be held in Liege, Belgium, from 3 to 7 February 2022, after their successful run at the continental qualifying tournament held in April this year.

The Namibians retained the Indoor Africa World Cup 2021 by defeating South Africa’s national team, the Proteas, 2-0 in the final in Durban. Goals from Caitlin Gillies and Sunelle Ludwig were enough to secure the win, the title and World Cup qualification and overturn the two earlier defeats to the host nation.

At the Africa Indoor World Cup, Namibia’s Petro Stoffberg won the goalkeeper of tournament award and also the overall prize as best player of the tournament.

The Namibian women retained their Indoor World Cup spot. They had also beaten South Africa in the 2017 final to ensure their participation in Germany the following year.

BEST IN AFRICA

Namibia’s women’s hockey team is currently the highest-ranked African team in the indoor game.

According to the latest International Hockey Federation, the Namibia women are ranked joint ninth globally, a position they currently share with Australia. The two nations are level on 975 points each, followed by Kazakhstan (11th), USA (12th), Russia (13th) and South Africa (14th).

“Belgium, here we come. We are representing Africa, so watch out, here we come. Namibia is representing Africa at world level,” Mengo said after their win over the Proteas.

The Namibian women's team is sponsored by MTC, with Namdia and Standard Bank as co-sponsors.