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Tadious Manyepo Youth Interactions Correspondent
SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD Dzivaresekwa High 2 Form 4 student Munashe Chiyangwa has signed her first professional netball contract with Malawi top-flight team Kukoma Netball Club.
The development makes Chiyangwa who is currently preparing to sit for her Ordinary Level final examinations, the first Zimbabwean netball player to join a foreign top-tier team without playing in the domestic league.
The lanky utility star presently turns out for ASSFA Academy where she is the captain.
Yet, she never expected to nail down a professional contract in Zimbabwe yet alone in Zimbabwe so soon given her age and the level of competition her academy is mostly exposed to.
“It is still to sink in my mind that I have indeed been taken aboard by the team in Malawi,” she said.
“I was playing netball both at the academy and at school just to keep me fit and I never thought that one day it would come to this. I would like to thank God for the amazing grace.
“At the moment, I am feeling a bit of pressure since I am also preparing to write my Ordinary Level examinations.
“I have to balance the two. Look, I am going to play in Malawi not just for the first time but it would be my first time playing the game at a professional level and you know what I am talking about, that pressure, that weight you feel on your shoulders. Add that feeling and those thoughts to the pressure that I now have as I prepare for the defining Ordinary Level examinations.
“I am trying to work hard on both issues and try to come out victorious but to be honest, I am extremely happy for securing the netball deal but I am not getting carried away by that fact to the extent of forgetting about my academic work.
“I am actually pushing my academic work more for I know more gates will be opened if I do well in this discipline.”
Chiyangwa said she now harbours ambitions of playing for the national netball team, the Gems and she could be drafted as soon as she establishes herself in Malawi, whose league is ranked above Zimbabwe’s.
The soft-spoken Chiyangwa is also an athlete and she is not giving up on it despite that she has penned a lucrative netball deal.
“I have always been an athlete and I have won several accolades in the track.
“I always love the sport and I am not going to retire anytime soon. I will try and push in that respect and I hope one day I will also represent the country in athletics.
“But for now, I am happy and ready to compete in Malawi and I believe this will open more opportunities for me going forward.
Netball has been on an upward trajectory in the country since the Gems came out eighth best team in their maiden appearance at the Netball World Cup held in Liverpool, England in 2019.
Online Reporter