Beach volleyball team upbeat

Zimbabwe will be fielding four sides in the three-day tournament that will also feature teams from Namibia and the hosts and will end on Sunday with participants fighting for honours in the men and women’s categories.

The men’s teams are made up of such top players like Brighton Ngunzi and Nyashadzashe Takawira and they will be joined by the South Africa-based pair of Panashe Chiguta and Tapiwa Mafuwa.
Brenda Mundiya and Khanyile Dhlamini will represent the country in the women’s section together with Vuyiswa Dhlomo and Persuade Gwaba.

Initially Zimbabwe were hoping to field three women’s teams and a men’s side but the pair of Felistus Chakabveyo and Media Mafuta pulled out due to financial constraints since the teams are catering for their own expenses for the trip.
Njerere, however, expressed confidence in the teams that take part and reckoned that it is the women who appear to have better chances of progressing to the knockout stages of the comeptition.
compared to their male counterparts.

“I think as our first appearance in this Cape Town Open tournament it will provide us with experience and exposure. I hope it will help our players with the much needed exposure as we prepare other upcoming competitions.
“There are top players in the region that will be taking part but considering that that our women’s team won last time in Port Elizabeth we are hoping that they can maintain that and get into the finals. We have been preparing for this.

“For the boys it’s going to be a tough draw because most of the top players will be there but we are also using this as a development platform for our players, said Njerere.
The teams will also be playing for points as they hope to make it for the Olympic qualifiers.

“We are also trying to earn some points which can be used for our Olympic qualifiers. Every time you play in an open tournament and FIVB events you get points and these points will help determine your participation in the qualifiers,” said Njerere.
The participating countries will today hold a technical meeting to decide on the format to be used for tournament.