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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
FRANCE-BASED basketball star Vitalis Chikoko will before the end of the week join the rest of the Zimbabwe squad in camp for the men’s AfroCan Zone Six Qualifiers to be held in Bulawayo later this month.
Chikoko is widely acknowledged as one of the top players in the French Jeep Elite ProA. He has earned three successive All-Star nominations in the last three seasons while also being a serious contender for the Jeep Elite ProA Most Valuable Player (MVP) to underline his status as one of the big stars of the French top division.
The Zimbabwe national team star has been based in Europe since 2011 when he moved to German club
ASC Göttingen prior to making the switch to BG Göttingen. After one season with Goettingen, Chikoko went to TBB Trier before his journey led him to Italy with Reggio Emilia and Verona.
He returned to Germany with FC Bayern Munich before moving to France in 2016. Chikoko is on the books of Elan Bearnais Pau-Lacq-Orthez. Six nations and 10 teams will converge for the Women’s AfroBasket and Men’s AfroCan qualifiers slated for 20 to 28 February at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair.
Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, South Africa and hosts Zimbabwe will take part in the competitions, which are expected to run concurrently during the week-long basketball extravaganza.
“The preparations are going on well. We are confident that we will have successful competitions. The teams have started their training camps and the coaches will soon be making their final lists. In the men’s side we expect France-based Chikoko to join the team on the 17th. He will be a major boost to the squad,” said Mujuru.
Angola, Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe will compete in the women’s AfroBasket Zone Six Qualifiers, with the finals of the quadrennial tournament scheduled for 28 July to 6 August in Kigali, Rwanda.
In the men’s AfroCan Zone Six Qualifiers, Zimbabwe will slug it out with Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa.
The tournament, which is still relatively new, is a national team competition for players based in Africa. It is also specifically for nations that will not compete in the World Cup African Qualifiers. Four teams, the Democratic Republic Congo, Kenya, Angola and Morocco have already qualified for the finals of the second edition of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) AfroCan by virtue of reaching the semi-finals of the last edition that was held in Bamako, Mali. The host nation and dates for the 2023 FIBA AfroCan are yet to be determined.
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