100 boxers for national tourney

tournament, writes Ellina Mhlanga.
The tournament will feature all the 11 provinces affiliated to ZABA, including the Zimbabwe National Army who are the defending champions after they finished overall winners in last year’s event. Participants will compete in 11 weight divisions from the lightweight to the super-heavyweight.
Zaba technical director, Petros Masiyambumbi, said all the provinces have confirmed their participation.
“All the provinces have acknowledged that they are coming and we are looking at almost 160 fighters.
“This is part of our preparations for the All-Africa Games since we are just coming from the Zone Six Championships
“I think the competition will be tight because we have fighters from the regional championships and they will be out to display their best performance,” said Masiyambumbi.
ZNA team coach, Felix Podza, said they are hoping to retain their title at today’s competition.
“We are prepared for the tournament and we are ready to defend our title. We know the level of competition will be high but we have some good fighters and we have been doing well over the years.
“There are good fighters from Matabeleland but I know we are going to prevail,” said Podza.
Some of the fighters who are expected to compete in today’s event include bronze medallist at the just-ended Zone Six Championships, Josphat Mufayi, Steven Masiyambumbi, Last Magare and Emmanuel Mashiri.
Meanwhile, the national association is scheduled to conduct a coaches’ clinic in Gweru starting from Monday and ending on Friday.
Zaba technical director Petros Masiyambumbi will conduct the course and he said after the coaches’ course they will have another course for the referees and judges at One Commando in Ha- rare.
“The referees and judges course will be on June 13 and those that would have done well will go to Botswana for the continental judges course. This is an open course for everybody,” said Masiyambu-mbi.