adminCollin Matiza Sports Editor
HARARE’S Girls High School were on Thursday the first team to arrive for the 2016 Partille Cup handball tournament in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Partille Cup, started by a Swede handball club IK Sävehof, is the world’s largest annual tournament in handball in terms of number of participants. The tournament is played every year during one week in July by young people in the ages between 10 and 21 years old.
When the tournament started in 1970, it was played in the small town of Partille. In 2001 the tournament started to move in to Gothenburg, and was completely moved in 2004.
Today the Partille Cup is now the world’s largest international youth handball tournament. The event takes place in Gothenburg during week 27 every summer. Since the start, over 400 000 participants from 90 countries and six continents have participated.
And from this coming Monday to July 9, the Partille Cup will be played for the 47th consecutive year with Harare’s Girls High School being one of the two teams representing Zimbabwe at this year’s youth handball jamboree in Gothenburg.
Mashrhino, a select side from Mashonaland West Province, is the other Zimbabwea team that will take part in this year’s Partille Cup and they were scheduled to leave for Sweden yesterday afternoon accompanied by the former president of the Zimbabwe Handball Federation, Amon Madzvamuse, who is travelling there as a guest of the event’s organisers.
But it was Harare’s Girls High School who touched down first at Landvetter Airport in Gothenburg on Thursday morning ready to carry the Zimbabwean flag high at this year’s Partille Cup.
In fact, according to Kenneth Fagbe, one of the organisers of the Partille Cup, Girls High School of Zimbabwe have maintained consistency as the first African team or country to arrive for this event since 2013. They are among the nation that were selected for the Solidarity Camp which held ahead of the Partille Cup.
The Solidarity Camp is arranged by Partille Cup to share experience by playing friendly matches with selected nations that were selected across the world with full access to coaches from the Swedish Handball Federation which assist by giving technical trainings and helping these countries to become great handball nation in the future.
The Solidarity Camp last for three days and end before the Partille Cup tournament begins.
Online Reporter