The Brave Gladiators of Namibia assembled for training camp ahead of their Hollywoodbets COSAFA Women’s Championship campaign. This year’s women’s regional competition will be hosted in Polokwane,South Africa from 18 February- 1 1 March 2026.
Namibia is drawn in group C alongside Mozambique and Madagascar.
The inaugural COSAFA Women’s Championship was staged in Zimbabwe from April 19–28, 2002, and was set to feature nine teams before Mauritius withdrew. South Africa and hosts Zimbabwe were always going to be the favourites and it was they who met in the final. But before then, both stormed through their pools to make the semis.
Zimbabwe topped Group A as they claimed a record 15-0 victory over Lesotho, to go with wins against Zambia (4-0) and Malawi (6-0). Zambia managed to fill the runners-up spot.
South Africa were even more emphatic in their pool-stage campaign as they claimed victories over Botswana (14-0), a game in which Veronica Phewa scored eight goals, Mozambique (13-0) and Swaziland (4-0). Mozambique picked up the runners-up position in Group B.
Zimbabwe made short work of Mozambique in their semi-final with an 11-1 victory, while South Africa had it much tougher with a 3-1 success against Zambia in the other semi.
That set up a final at Rufaro Stadium that was won 2-1 by South Africa thanks to goals from Phewa and Portia Modise. Zambia took the bronze medal when Julia Siame scored the only goal as they beat Mozambique 1-0 in the third-place play-off.