Championships on

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Handball Federation are hoping to take women’s handball to another level when they hold the Open Women’s Club Championships this month at Harare’s Girls High School.The one-day event is slated for September 28 and about 20 teams from the country’s 10 provinces are expected to take part.

The championships were suppose to run concurrently with the men’s event that was held in Bindura in April, but most of the women’s clubs failed to turn up.

The ZHF secretary-general Alphios Magiya said they had to move the dates for the women’s championships after three clubs only turned up in Bindura.

Magiya said preparations for the women’s event are well on course and some of the teams have since confirmed their participation.
“We have about 10 teams that have so far confirmed their participation. We have teams from Masvingo, Bulawayo, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central and there is Chipadze and Harare which has the bulk of the teams.

“So far, they have three teams that have confirmed their participation. We are expecting at least two teams per province.
“We normally hold a combined men and women’s event, but this time the women’s turnout was very low as there were only three teams in Bindura.

For this one, I think they will make it because they had enough time to prepare and we are looking at around 20 clubs coming in to participate in this tournament.

“In terms of women’s handball, the competition is not that high but we expect competition from teams like Girls High who have players that have been abroad and have the exposure. We have Harlem from Mutare, they have been playing for quite some time now. They are the defending champions from last year,” said Magiya.

The ZHF secretarty-general said the move to reschedule the event is meant to promote women’s participation and development.
“It’s promoting women in handball because we have very few well-established women’s clubs in the country and the president (of the ZHF, Amon Madzvamuse) has taken the initiative to develop women’s handball.

“I think we are just going to conduct a draw.
“If we get 20 teams we will put them into four groups and they will play on a round-robin basis with the top two teams progressing to the quarter-finals then semis and the finals,” said Magiya.

Meanwhile, Mashonaland West Province have put in place their executive committee to run handball affairs in the province.
ZHF president Amon Madzvamuse confirmed the development, but he said the committee will be unveiled sometime this month.

Alfos Mhondiwa, a seasoned handball coach, is leading the crusade of developing handball in Mashonaland West Province and in July this year he took Mashrhino, a girls Under-12 side from that province, to the Partille Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Mhondiwa recently indicated that he was likely to send another team from his province to next year’s Partille Cup and there were also chances of sending the Mashonaland West boys soccer team to football’s Gothia Cup that will also be staged in Gothenburg in July next year.

Mashonaland West Province boys’ team won this year’s National Youth Games soccer title in Bulawayo in August.