adminCollin Matiza Sports Editor
A COUPLE of weeks ago, the Zimbabwe Handball Federation took a huge gamble of asking the boys and girls Under-18 national teams to travel by road to Cape Town, South Africa, to compete in the inaugural Young Masters International tournament. A group of 14 girls and an equal number of boys agreed to undertake this long and winding journey, all for the love of representing their country.
But with coaches Daniel Mtandwa, Benard Muza, Clayton Shereni and Innocent Kanosvova calling the shots, the dedicated group quickly went straight to the courts at Gugulethu Sports Complex in Cape Town’s sprawling township of Gugulethu for their first matches on Saturday afternoon.
Four Cape Town-based junior handball clubs — Young Masters, Gugulethu, Cape Stars and the German School — were lined-up as the Zimbabwe Under-18 teams’ opponents.
But at the end of business on the final day of competition on Sunday night, both the Zimbabwe Under-18 boys and girls came out of the Gugulethu Sports Complex unscathed after winning almost all of their matches to be crowned as the overall winners of the inaugural tournament.
Zimbabwe Handball Federation president, Amon Madzvamuse, said the tour of South Africa was a success.
“First of all I would like to say that I was very touched by the warm reception that we received from our hosts in South Africa and secondly I would also like to say that I was really impressed by the standard of handball that was displayed by both our boys and girls teams.
“In fact, when we were invited to take part in this tournament, we said that we should not pick players who would just go there (to Cape Town) as sports tourists, but we wanted to take a group of good, talented youngsters whom we thought would leave a big impression at this tournament and we have been vindicated as they won almost all of their matches.
“We are trying hard to groom these youngsters and turn them into really good handballers and this will in turn make Zimbabwe one of the handball powerhouses in Africa, but it can only be realised if we continue sending them out to compete in regional and international tournaments like the Young Masters event,” Madzvamuse said.
The ZHF president also accepted an invitation from the one of the organisers of the weekend’s event, the GeBe Education and Sports Foundation, to send the Zimbabwe Under-18 boys and girls teams to next April’s Hanse Cup in Germany.
Online Reporter