Namibia saved the best for last when they won gold in both the boys and girls competitions of their hockey test series against Zimbabwe on Saturday evening.
In the boys final, Namibia u18 beat Zimbabwe u18 2-1 to clinch the gold medal, while Namibia's u18 girls beat their Zimbabwean counterparts 4-2 in the girls final.
Both results showed a significant improvement as Zimbabwe had held the upper hand during the group stages earlier in the tournament.
In the boys competition, Zimbabwe beat Namibia 3-2 on Friday night when Namibia twice came from behind to draw level, before Sean Bennet scored the winner for Zimbabwe with two minutes to go.
That match, like an earlier one that saw Zimbabwe u16 beating their Namibian u16 counterparts 2-1 had some contentious umpiring decisions, with a great solo goal by Namibia's Ludwig van Rooyen disallowed, while in the u16 match a short corner goal by Abraham Graham was also disallowed after the ball went through the net.
Namibia and Zimbabwe's u18 sides once again met in the final and this time the outcome was different as Namibia clinched a thrilling victory.
Zimbabwe won a penalty in the first quarter, but Namibian goalkeeper Rylan Bombosch pulled off a great save to deny Justin Steyn, and Namibia took the lead early in the second quarter when James de Jager finished off a swift counterattack by Ludwig van Rooyen.
Zimbabwe, however, soon equalised through a fine solo goal by Steyn, but De Jager restored Namibia's lead when he poked home a high ball in the box.
Zimbabwe attacked relentlessly in the final stages, but Namibia defended superbly with Bombosch and Sampie Venter catching the eye to secure a great victory.
With that they emulated the Namibian class of 2017 when Namibia's u18 boys also beat Zimbabwe u18 to win the gold medal, and coach Siyabonga Martins said they had learnt from their group stage defeat.
"We did our homework on the mistakes we made in the first match against them, so today we were quite clinical going forward. We just closed our errors in our defensive line, we overloaded our midfield line to make sure that they don't come through the middle and when we got our chances in the circle we used them clinically," he said.
"This is a great platform for these youngsters to build on and I'm looking forward to the u21 World Cup in two years time," he added.
Namibia also clinched the bronze medal after Namibia u16 beat Zimbabwe u16 3-2 in the third place playoff.
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Namibia's u18 girls put in a great performance to win gold after they were held to a 2-2 draw by Zimbabwe u18 on Friday night.
In the final on Saturday, Marika Neethling put Namibia ahead from a short corner, while Anine le Roux made it 2-0 after a fine overhead pass by Neethling.
Zimbabwe opened their account with a field goal by Nyasha Nyaguze, but goals by Annica Higgs and Jaime Gillies gave Namibia a commanding 4-1 lead.
Zimbabwe managed to pull a goal back through Tayla Deanin the final quarter but it was not enough as Namibia secured an impressive win.
Namibian coach Kagiso Mosiane said they took a while to settle down.
"It was a vey exciting game. In the beginning my girls were really nervous, but once we started getting into the flow and connecting our passes, the game started opening up for us and that's how we won the game," he said, adding that they had learnt valuable lessons from their first round draw.
"What we learnt from that was that they are very good at counterattacking and shortcorners, so we kept them outside our circle and made sure we didn't give them any balls that they could use to hurt us."
"I think this win is going to do so much for Namibian hockey - we started last year with the South Arican test series and now we've got Zimbabwe, so I think our hockey is going to improve by leaps and bounds, including the under-16s, so theres nothing more that we could ask for. I hope we can just build on this and get more test series' against other nations, because there's so much talent within Africa that we can really use and drive the sport," he added.
Namibia also won the bronze medal after Namibia u16 beat Zimbabwe u16 1-0 in the third place playoff.
