admincompetition to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, from July 1 to 7.
The tournament attracts thousands of young handball players from across the world and Zimbabwe is this year expecting to send more than 100 players from secondary and primary schools.
This is the second year the nation will be fielding primary schools in the Cup and most of the teams have geared up their preparations for this event.
Zimbabwe will be represented at this year’s Partille Cup by Houghton Park Primary School, Chishawasha Primary School and Mash Rhino, a select team from Mashonaland West, in the Under-13 age-group.
Morgan High will participate in the Under-21 category and Girls High School will be carrying the country’s flag in the Under-20 section while Howard High will field a team in the Under-18 competition.
Speaking to The Herald this week, most of the schools said they were raring to go and were making their final preparations for this major international handball event in Gothenburg.
Morgan High School coach, Bernard Muzanenhamo, said they were ready to play but were still facing some financial constraints.
“We started training at the beginning of this (second) term and our teams are ready to play.
“In terms of finances, we managed to pay 25 percent for our air tickets but we are still having some challenges. The money we have paid is coming from the school’s coffers and we are looking for assistance.
“We are looking at exposing our athletes to the highest level of participation and at the same time I think our players will be exposed to the highest level of handball in the world.
“It’s a learning curve but at the same time we will try to be at our level best. They (the players) are really excited because this is a lifetime opportunity, even the whole school, parents and everyone is excited,” said Muzanenhamo.
Girls High School sports director, Miriam Moyo, said they are looking forward to the tournament.
“We are expecting a lot of things, first of all we are looking at exposure for the players. Our players are Under-19s, most of them will be leaving school but we hope they are going to be able to see the world, have some form of experience as to how the game is played outside and maybe when they come back they may want to make a life out of handball.
“It’s unfortunate in Zimbabwe handball is not exactly popular but we are trying to see if we can come up with a club so that these girls don’t just end up competing in high schools only but also participate at club level and then they can make their living out of it,” said Moyo.
The Girls High School sports director said they will be pinning their hopes on some of their players who have competed outside the country before and noted that there is need to utilise those players that would have been exposed to such competitions as the Partille Cup for the benefit of others and the sport.
“It is very important because once they are exposed to games of this magnitude then they are able to come back here and show the other players and the rest of the country that they have at least attained some higher level of play.
“This is what we want, they have to come back and not just be at Girls High or primary schools but be exposed to teams from other provinces so that they at least show them or at least have mini-tournaments and mini-courses where we can then use these girls who have been to a better level of play to try and train the others too,” said Moyo.
Houghton Park Primary coach, Joan Tapfuma, said they were forced to drop some of their players as they could not afford to pay for the airfares.
“We had worked very hard but at the last moment the expected sponsor failed to fulfil the promise in time so as a result we resorted to those children who can pay for themselves.
“Parents have been very supportive, some have paid for the air tickets, food, accommodation and the visas for their children.
“We have been teaching our players a lot of skills and we gave them a chance to work on those skills. We have been teaching them to play skilfully yet not losing and they have to be resilient.
“We recently had the first ever national tournament hosted at Houghton Park and both our boys and girls teams came second and that should give me confidence,” said Tapfuma.
Tapfuma said their participation in the Partille Cup will encourage more young players to take the sport seriously because they now have something to play for.
“They are very excited, very zealous and ambitious to do it at this age and they have been motivated, they know it takes them far so they will go far,” said Tapfuma.
For Chishawasha Primary it will be their first appearance at an international event and their coach, Elizabeth Mazhindu, said they have been working hard in preparation of the competition.
“We are doing thorough preparations but our children, they are still in need of more time so that they are adequately prepared. We are new and we do not know how other teams have prepared and we need to work on endurance,” said Mazhindu.
Mazhindu said the event is an opportunity for the players to interact and learn from other participants at the competition.
“It’s a way of being lifted up because they get to meet people from other countries, make friends and for some, this is their first time they will travelling outside the country.
“It will be an eye-opener for them,” said Mazhindu.
The teams are expected to leave for Sweden later this month with Girls High School and Howard set to depart on June 27 as they are set to participate in an Olympic development programme running from June 28 to July 1.
Alphios Magiya, the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Handball Federation, recently indicated that all was in place in their preparations for this year’s Partille Cup but they were still appealing for sponsorship to cater for some of the teams’ kit and allowances for the officials.
“We are still looking at raising US$20 000 that will, among other things, go towards buying the kit of the players that will participate in this year’s Partille Cup in Gothenburg and we are confident of reaching our target before the first batch of players and officials leave the country for Sweden on June 27,” Magiya said.
Meanwhile, the ZHF president Amon Madzvamuse and the federation’s patron Musekiwa Kumbula are both expected to be part of Team Zimbabwe for this year’s Partille Cup.
This will be the first time that the two officials will be accompanying the team to this annual tournament and Magiya said their presence will go a long way in boosting the morale in their camp during this one-week event in Sweden.
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