During the beginning years of the In-Line Hockey World Championship, North American teams dominated the field.  The United States and Canada finished in first and second place at each of the first three championships, which were all hosted in the USA.

In 1998, the format of the tournament changed to create a Pool A and Pool B division. For the first time that year the USA did not take home the gold medal, but instead Canada, who had been the silver medalist the previous two years had the honour.

In 2000 and 2001 Finland took home the gold. In 2002 Sweden managed to win the gold medal, which was taken back by Finland in 2003 only to lose it to the USA in 2004. Teams like Argentina, who defeated the Namibian team in double figures during the qualifying games in 2002 and South Africa who beat our team in 2003 to qualify for the World Championships in Germany, failed to qualify this year.

Only one year before the inception of the World Championships Namibia started In-Line Hockey - quite by chance. Nobody would have imagined that only 10 years down the line a Namibian National Team would quality for the World Championships in 2005.

The qualification for the World Championships did not come automatically. There was some hard work, a lot of sweat and some silent tears to be sure. Only 16 countries from all over the world may qualify to compete at this international event. To receive your country’s colours and represent your nation abroad does not come often. It is a privilege as well as an honour and comes with a lot of responsibility.

Namibia can look at the current standings of the World Championship with pride.  The Namibia Team has already won one game, and thus far has scored 14 goals while giving up only 20 against the best competition in the world. In contrast, during 2004  Argentina (who beat us by double figures in 2002)  was only able to score 5 goals and  gave up 26 while winning no games. Thus Namibia, being a country with a population of less than 2 million, performed very well just to qualify against nations that can draw from a much larger pool of players.

With the Namibian facilities being just inside the international minimum size of an inline hockey rink (Cazadores rink measuring 51X27m) our team has also had to adjust to a 10 metre longer and 3 m wider rink in only two training sessions.

Starting off on Sunday against an internationally experienced Brazil, who played their first championship in 2000, was a challenge. With nerves lying raw and passes not always making the far side of the rink our team had to adapt  quickly. When Riyann Ely, our # 53, scored the first goal only 1 minute into the game, some optimistic supporter might have thought: “There!” Well, it was not as easy - as this was followed by six goals against us before at the end of the third period Michael Ellinger (45) assisted by Marco Debortoli (32), managed to score again. Brazil added one more point and gave Quintin Kotze (80) –one of the Namibia InLine Hockey founding members of 1995 - the chance to reduce the final score to Brazil 7: Namibia 3 three and a half minutes before the final whistle.

Monday brought us Japan, who has been competing in the World Championships from 1996 with a two year break in 2000 and 2001. The first goal against us was scored only 30 second into the game while one of our players was penalized for hooking. Several minutes later Japan added a second goal before Windhoek’s Timo Giersch (22) scored for our team. There were several penalties to be dealt with to begin the second period before Riyaan Ely (what number is he again?) scored to tie. It seems to fit the Namibian mentality better to get some wake-up calls first rather then leading… Timo scored again only 21 seconds into the third period to take the lead for Namibia. But experience paid off for Japan as they tied us only seconds later and went into the lead in the third period. In the last quarter of the game Japan managed to add three more goals to a final score of Japan 6 : Namibia 3.

Tuesday came with our team having to deal with the pressure of making or breaking this chance… Taipei scored first – good thing (a wake-up call we are getting superstitious here) -, with Namibia to follow – Michael Ellinger scored this again and score to lead - Cello Baas (35), left his brand here - still in the first period. Clive Vermaak (21) took Namibia to three points with Cello Baas adding his second goal. Taipei managed to score almost each time when we had a player in the icebox, which brought them close -- too close for Namibian supporters. With the Taiwanese team throwing everything they had by taking out the goalie and adding another field player in the last 30 seconds of this game. Final score was Chinese Taipei 7 : Namibia 8.

Our team and supporters had their deserved break on Wednesday and visited Kuopio.  This gave time to recharge batteries and nurse some wounds.

On Thursday our team had to face Hungary, the second placed team of croup C. Hungary lost to a very strong Great Britain team on Tuesday  in overtime 9:8 in penalty shootout. Hungary had 31 goals for and 18 against their team.

Hungary went into the lead from the start and increased their lead to 4:0 within the first four minutes of the first period. Looking at the ticker on the screen, one was wondering where our players were. But they were there and managed to edge in 3 goals against this overpowering adversary. Final score Hungary 9:Namibia 3.

On Friday our team played against Australia, a team that had demonstrated a balanced offence and defence in the tough C Division. . After a terrible start, Oliver Lohmeier (88)  scored our first goal 33minutes into the game to close the gap to 5:1. In a furious final quarter, the Namibian team managed to add 4 goals, but fell just short.   While the loss was disappointing, the team still finished 14^th  in the World Championships. Final score Australia 6 : Namibia 5.

On Saturday the medals rounds were held.  In the end, it was Sweden who took home the gold, in front of Finland with silver, and USA with bronze.

In the B Pool,  Hungary  won the desired gold, followed by Japan  with the silver. Great Britain, the defending champion for Pool B, took home the bronze medal.

On a final note for Namibia: Our team has managed to qualify for a position in the next World Championships. They also won the trophy for fair play for the 2005 World Championships.

Remarkably, all 14 players managed to score or assist at least one goal during the games, while our goaltenders defended and saved what they could. Cello Baas – the youngest player on the Namibian National team - had the best player total for Namibia with 4 goals and 1 assist closely followed by Timo Giersch 3 goals and 1 assist, which is valued the same as Jörg Güther with 1 goal and 3 assist.