On Tuesday morning the Namibian national Inline Hockey team arrived back from Kuopio (Finland), having achieved everything they could have dreamed of. Taking part for the very first time in the elite of only 16 of the worlds best teams, the lone representatives from the African continent succeeded to reach 14th place, which automatically qualifies Namibia to play in the next World Championship (from 9 to 16 July 2006 in Budapest, Hungary). In their last game, Namibia narrowly lost 5:6 against Australia, scoring four exciting goals in the last six minutes. Namibia even won a Cup for conceding the fewest penalties (the "Fair play Cup"). Observers were unanimous in declaring that the Namibian team was extremely fit and quick enough on the court - losing their games with only a slender margin -, but they lacked some international experience. Teams like Sweden (winning the final 4:2 against Finland), host Finland or USA, Germany etc. already had some 8 gold medals from World Championships amongst them. Some of these countries play the game Inline Hockey professionally since 1996. Overall: a very good performance by the young Namibian team - under able leadership of a good management team and well-prepared by Coach Philippe Boudreault and his Assistant Roman Marx. The nation is already looking forward to next years performance - but beware: Expectations might just be aining too high! Photo: Arriving from Finland, the team was very tired - and happy to have achieved so much. Here Harald Keil holds the trophy for the fair performances of the Namibians.