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Ellina Mhlanga-Senior Sports Reporter
THE Under-20 and Under-18 women’s handball teams are set to regroup today for the final camp ahead of their departure for the Zone VI (Africa) International Handball Federation Trophy Women 2023 to be held in South Africa.
The event is slated for May 23 to 27.
All participating teams are expected to be in Johannesburg on May 23, with the actual competition expected to begin the following day.
The Zimbabwe Handball Federation is fielding teams in both age groups — Under-18 (youth) and Under-20 (junior).
They had two periodic camps prior to the final camp expected to run until their departure on May 22. They will be travelling by road.
ZHF secretary-general Edson Chirowodza confirmed the players are expected to go into camp today, in Chitungwiza to fine-tune their preparations for the event.
“We have had two periodic camps and this is the final towards departure.
“At the moment I think we are not expecting much in terms of our girls because they have been out of competitive handball for a long time since the Covid-19 period,” said Chirowodza.
The tournament is the first step towards qualification for the World Youth and Junior Championships expected to take place later in the year.
The winners from each age-group at the regional tournament progress to the continental show-piece and the top team qualify for the World Championships.
Chirowodza said the tournament presents the players with a platform for exposure competing in a competitive environment after some time.
“So for us it’s a tournament where we also don’t know the strength of the other countries for the same tournament . . . So we expect anything. We also have chances; we have not seen how the other countries are playing.
“As Zimbabwe we are not putting our girls under pressure. We want them to get exposure and to enjoy themselves. If our team is better, they can bring us a positive result in terms of qualifying for the continental event.
“I think we have done our level best to prepare for these championships. We started with 28 players per age-group.
We have managed to come with the final 14 players for each age-group, which are the best and whom we believe can give us best results,” Chirowodza said.
Sipho Mahlangu is in charge of the Under-20 side and Moreways Changa is leading the Under-18s.
The regional tournament is expected to feature teams from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter