The 2024 Indoor Africa Cup concluded yesterday with the Namibian men and South African women winning gold medals and qualifying for the 2025 FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup. Porec, Croatia, 3-9 February 2025Africa will have two men’s and two women’s spots at the World Cup, and the South African men’s and Namibian women’s teams have also qualified for the upcoming indoor hockey premier tournament after winning silver medals at the Indoor Africa Cup.
In the men’s competition South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana played each of the other three teams once in a round-robin format. South Africa won all three of their matches in this stage to take the lead, followed by hosts Namibia who comfortably won their matches against Zimbabwe and Botswana to take second place.
South Africa and Namibia advanced to the final as the top two finishers. With their top two finishes, both teams also qualified for the FIH Men’s Indoor Hockey World Cup Croatia 2025. Both teams played thrilling matches in the round robin and the final played out in a similar fashion with South Africa emerging victorious 5-4. After a scoreless first half, South Africa scored two goals early in the third quarter to get the game going. However, Namibia scored two goals in the final two minutes to take the lead going into the third quarter and finish the quarter strong.
South Africa took the lead again in the final quarter, but Namibia fought back again, and the teams were tied at 3 points each at the end of regulation, sending the final into a penalty shootout. Both teams were evenly matched in the first phase of the shootout, with both teams scoring two goals and missing one, sending the match into sudden death. In a tense moment, South Africa took the first chance, and Namibia won the shootout 4-3 to take the victory and the title, becoming African champions.
In the women’s competition South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana competed in a round robin format where each team played the other three teams once. South Africa came out on top with two wins and one draw. Namibia performed similarly but finished second due to a poor goal difference. The head-to-head match between South Africa and Namibia ended in a 1-1 draw, with both teams qualifying for the final, setting up a thrilling match.
South Africa and Namibia had already qualified for the FIH Women’s Indoor Hockey World Cup Croatia 2025 by finishing in the top two places, but the right to win the African championship was still up for grabs and the final did not disappoint.
In a match split into two halves, South Africa performed phenomenally in the first half, scoring three consecutive goals to end the first half with a 3-0 lead, but Namibia fought back in the second half, scoring three goals to send the match into a penalty shootout with the score tied at 3-3 at the end of regulation.
Both teams failed twice and succeeded once in the first phase of the shootout, sending the match into a sudden death phase. South Africa was successful on their first attempt and Namibia failed, making South Africa the African indoor hockey champions.
South African women’s team captain Jamie Southgate had this to say about his team’s performance: “I’m very proud of the team’s performance. I’m really happy to be African champions again and I’m really looking forward to competing in the Indoor Hockey World Cup again.”