5K needed for Lady Cheetahs Olympic qualifier preps

Sports Reporter
Zimbabwe Women’s Rugby president Abigail Mnikwa has revealed that the national sevens rugby team require $5 000 to cater for the Africa Women’s Olympic qualifiers which are set to be held at the Barnard Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa. The qualifiers tournament will run from 26 to 27 September and the women’s rugby team is expected to troop into camp on Sunday.

Initially, the Lady Cheetahs were expected to have gone into camp at the beginning of the month, but that has not been the case due to financial constraints.
In an interview with Sunday News Sports the women rugby president said there were few organisations who have shown an interest in supporting their cause.

“A number of organisations have shown interest but all in all we need about $5 000. We urge the corporate world to chip in with any sort of sponsorship bundles as we are also in need of a kit for the tournament,” said Mnikwa.

She also pointed out that such challenges are not good for the team as they can distract the performance of the Lady Cheetahs on the field of play.
“It is not good to have challenges when preparing for an important tournament as they can disturb the preparations and end up influencing the outcome of the games in a negative way,” added Mnikwa.

The final team for the two-day tournament is expected to be announced at the end of the week by national team coach Abigail Kawonza.
The Lady Cheetahs were drawn in Pool A of the 10-nation tournament alongside Zambia, Uganda, Namibia and the home team South Africa, while Tunisia, Botswana, Madagascar, Kenya as well as Senegal were placed in Pool B. The top team at the end of the competition will automatically qualify for next year’s Olympic Games in Rio while the runners-up will then have to face another round of competition with second placed teams from other continental qualifiers.

Meanwhile, the Daniel Hondo coached Cheetahs will take part in the Safland Windhoek Sevens rugby tournament in Namibia which is set for 25 to 26 September which will be used to fine tune for the African qualifying event in November, also in South Africa.