Handball tourney for primary school jnrs

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
UPCOMING handball players from primary schools in Harare and Chitungwiza are bracing for the Under-14 boys and girls tournaments pencilled for next week at Prospect and Zengeza 7 Primary Schools. Participants in Harare will converge at Prospect Primary on September 23 and in Chitungwiza action will be at Zengeza 7 Primary the following day.

The events are being organised by the Zimbabwe Handball Federation and are expected to spread to other provinces culminating into national finals later this year. ZHF organising secretary, Bernard Muzanenhamo, said they were embarking on a junior development programme through the tournaments, targeting primary schools.

“We are organising this for primary schools because all along our handball has been focusing on high schools, we were not focusing on the grassroots. “So, we now want to start development early. “We are hoping to develop players in primary schools so that when they go to high schools they are already at another stage of development.

“We are starting with Harare but we want all provinces to hold such tournaments.

“It’s going to be an annual event and for continuity purposes, we will set up tournaments from district level, then provincial events culminating into national finals.

“So, after these provincial tournaments, we will have national finals,” said Muzanenhamo. He said the schools will be divided into pools before progressing to the knock-out stages.

“The schools will be grouped into pools, from there they progress to the quarter-finals, then semi-finals and finals.

“I think one day is enough because these are primary schools and we will create more grounds.

“We expect a huge turnout of schools in both tournaments. We are looking at 30 schools for Chitungwiza and 40 for Harare.

“For the national finals we are still to come up with a date because we are looking at all provinces finishing the provincial tournaments but we will have the finals before the end of year,” said Muzanenhamo.

The ZHF organising secretary said there will be prize money for the winners although he could not reveal the actual amounts.