adminCaroline Magenga Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE 20-and-under national handball teams scooped bronze medals at the annual International Handball Federation Zone V trophy in Zambia last week.
The two teams of 15 girls and 16 boys won bronze medals after coming third behind the hosts Zambia and champions Mozambique.
Eight countries — South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Malawi, Swaziland, Mozambique , Zimbabwe and the hosts Zambia — took part.
Alphios Magiya, the Zimbabwe Handball Federation secretary-general, said the teams did their best.
“The results are relatively fair considering that competition was really stiff particularly from Mozambique who play superbly and are rated as the best in the region.
“Another weakness we noted on our part was on the technical aspects where our coaches, particularly for the girls, failed to maximise on a lot of opportunities in their semi-finals where they fell to Zambia.
“It was, however, an honour and invaluable learning experience for our teams to play against such worthy opponents and to be part of the top three and I think they did their best but some games you win and some are lost, it happens.”
The coach for the boys team Farai Gwisai said they were eyeing, at least, second place as Mozambique have always been tough opponents.
“We were aiming for silver because we knew that Mozambique would walk away the winners because their play is far ahead.
“They have a lot of exposure, they train abroad and play competitively more often than any other regional country. “We were not really worried about all the other teams but, unfortunately, we lost to Zambia in the semi-finals and that was because they had home advantage,” said Gwisai.
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