Beach volleyball teams to compete in Unity Cup

Highfields community hall on December 22 and 23 with 24 men and women teams expected to take part in the event.

Beach Volleyball commissioner, Robert Njerere, said the tournament will be part of their preparations for the Zonal competitions starting early next year.

“Beach volleyball is just starting and we are going to have a Unity Cup tournament, which is one of the many events we are going to have between now and January next year.
“We are starting Zonal competitions in the first or second week of February.

“The tournament is being hosted by the beach volleyball commission and we are expecting 12 men and 12 women teams.

“We are also going to have a mixed category where we are trying to make it funny. We are encouraging people to take up the sport,” said Njerere.

Njerere said there is need to establish a strong background for the sport if they are to attract sponsors to support them.

“We got a commission and we contributed individually to hosting the event. If we hold our event it might attract one or two people who can support us but we have to have something running on the ground to show to the people.

“We are planning to come up with our own beach volleyball circuit. I feel if we have more competition in Zimbabwe we can have better results when we compete outside the county.

“In Namibia we had our men’s team finishing first and the women and juniors came second.
“It shows there is a lot of potential if we have local beach volleyball competitions running and have a number of people playing,” said Njerere.

Njerere who is also the national team’s coach, said they are also going to invite players from indoor volleyball to take part in the tournament.

“This tournament coincides with the Unity Day and we are trying to encourage people who were playing indoor volleyball to come.

“This is the first edition of the cup, we have had a few events and we are hoping now that the interest is growing we have to come up with more organised events.