adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
The Copa Coca-Cola boys Under-16 and girls Under-17 tournament reaches the provincial finals next week with matches spread at different venues in the country’s 10 provinces.The competition kicked off in May with the cluster rounds before going to district competition and all winners from the district events will meet on June 27 in their respective provinces as each province seek to decide their representatives in this year’s national finals.
It will be the 26th edition for the boys tournament and fourth edition for the girls.
The national championships will be staged in Harare from July 18 to 20 with Churchill and Roosevelt hosting the boys and girls competition respectively.
The tournament will feature 24 schools, each category made up of twelve teams.
In the boys section defending champions, Chemhanza from Mashonaland East and Churchill have already booked their places in the national finals by the virtue of being the champions and the hosts respectively. It is the same story in the girls section where Chidyamakono from Masvingo are the defending champions and Roosevelt are the hosts.
In Bulawayo teams will converge at Gifford High while Plumtree High will host teams from Matabeleland South.
Nkayi High play host to teams from Matabeleland North.
Schools from Masvingo will battle it out at Hippo Valley while Mashonaland East’s teams converge at Marondera High and Nagle House.
Hermaine Germain High School is the place to be for Mashonaland Central teams.
Harare teams will fight for the two slots at Oriel.
Rimuka and Munyaradzi High are the venues for Mashonaland West.
Midlands school will be at Chaplin and Rimuka 1 host Manicaland teams.
There are high hopes for this year’s edition after Zimbabwe’s Select Side emerged the best at the Copa Coca-Cola International Camp after beating Uganda 3-0 in the final in Pretoria, South Africa, last year.
Not only did they win the trophy but the pair of Tatenda Tumba (midfielder) and Tatenda Munditi (goalkeeper) made it into the All-Stars Copa Coca-Cola African team.
Tumba was voted the best player of the tournament and top goal scorer as he scored six goals for Zimbabwe on their way to winning the trophy.
The two players were in Brazil recently for an international training camp.
They also got the opportunity to watch the World Cup opening match between Brazil and Croatia.
And that on its own is an inspiration to the many young players out there as they engage each other in next week’s provincial finals which will culminate in the national finals.
Online Reporter