Benjamen, De Carvalho lead KSSR awards

Footballer Kristofina Benjamen and male sprinter Ruano de Carvalho were crowned Khomas School Sport Region (KSSR) sportswoman and sportsman of the year during its awards ceremony held last week.

The KSSR falls under the regional coordination of the Namibia Schools Sport Union, which hosts championships in athletics, football, netball, rugby, volleyball and basketball for public and private primary schools and secondary schools in Khomas.

On Wednesday, KSSR hosted its awards for young achievers in the region where schools collected their winning trophies and medals as well as vouchers.

Benjamen, who represented Namibia at the 2022 Special Olympics Unified Cup in the United States of America, was rewarded with the sportswoman of the year accolade while sprinter De Carvalho won the sportsman of the year award after his impressive performance during the 2022 athletics season.

In the junior category, Lume Jansen van Rensburg was crowned junior sportswoman of the year while Mathew Raubenheimer took the junior sportsman of the year accolade.

Addressing the learners during the event, deputy director of sport, Irvine Ndjavera said upcoming talent currently at the school level should be guided and nurtured.

“I am happy to see that the KSSR is rewarding its athletes as this is a motivation for them to do better next time,” he said.

Ndjavera added that talents like De Carvalho and Benjamen are rare to find, therefore, corporate Namibia should come on board to support school sports.

“We are talking of grassroots development but at the moment we don’t have corporate Namibia supporting this league, I, therefore, call on them to come on board so that all these young players competing in these championships will be motivated and not be lost through the cracks due to no sports,” he said, adding that the KSSR initiative should be replicated to other regions as part of grassroots sports development.

On the day of the awards, 15 categories in football, athletics and netball were awarded trophies, gold, silver and bronze medals.