Namibian cyclists once again fell short on medals in men and women's Individual Time Trial event, during yesterday's action of the Commonwealth Games underway in Glasgow, Scotland.

Following a disappointing campaign in both the men and women's Mountain Bike event, Namibian cyclists yesterday once again took to the streets in a bid to add to the country's paltry medal tally but all hope faded when medal hopefuls Irene Steyn and Vera Adrian finished in a disappointing 28 and 29th place in the women's 30-km Individual Time Trial event.

In the men's 40-km Individual Time Trial, Gerhard Mans and Till Drobisch also followed suit in missing out a place on the podium after Drobisch could only manage an 18th place finish while his colleague Mans garnered a not-so impressive 24th place on the overall race standing.

The new trade deal, agreed to on July 15 in Pretoria, South Africa, known as the economic partnership agreement (EPA), replaces a trade deal which expired in 2007, and which Namibia and African countries often argued was “heavily skewed” in favor of the former colonial European countries, reports Southern Times Africa.

The draw for the individual men and women World Junior Squash Championships is out, with Namibia fielding 11 top players to compete against some of the world's best from 10-21 August on domestic soil.

Namibia has 6 men and 5 women players set to battle it out in the individual event, to be followed by the Men's World Junior Team Championships starting from 16-21 August, a historic first-ever for Namibia.

Namibia was chosen to host the event in September last year and have thus far made remarkable progress and anticipates attracting a total of 167 credible players from across the world. The championship takes place at Wanderers Sports Club and the Klein Windhoek Squash Courts.

Namibia's finest junior men and women players are pitted against some accomplished players on the junior world circuit. For junior men, Namibia has Gerhardus Lottering who sweats it out in the opener against James Evans from England, while Dylan Marc Spencer is drawn against Mohammad Alsarraj from Jordan.

FOR over a century, Namibia has had a strong mineral foundation, starting with the discovery of diamonds in 1908. In the years thereafter, it has developed into the fourth largest exporter of non fuel minerals in Africa today.

This is led by its diamond production, which is the sixth largest in the world by value, uranium production, which is the fifth largest in the world, as well as production of gold, lead, zinc, tin, silver and tungsten.

Adding to the known on-shore and offshore resources to which Namibia's economy is largely pinned, is the possibility of oil reserves. For a number of years there has been interest and activity in prospecting for hydrocarbons, both on and offshore, in Namibian territory. The first prospect wells were drilled in the early 1960s and following a number of dry wells, the Kudu gas fields were discovered in 1974, confirming the presence of hydrocarbons in the geological structures off the Namibian coast. The presence of hydrocarbons further motivated companies to explore coal and oil prospects in the country. However, after 36 coal exploration wells produced negative results and several oil exploration wells were found to be dry, interest in Namibia as an oil frontier waned.