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Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S hopes of qualifying a team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games suffered a blow as the men and women’s teams, participating at the ongoing African Road to Paris 2024 Olympic Qualifiers, bowed out of contest.
They both failed to progress to the semi-finals.
They lost their matches against Nigeria on Wednesday in Pretoria, South Africa.
Zimbabwe’s teams were placed bottom in their respective Pools.
They are now playing position classification matches and the men’s team were set to face Kenya last night.
First in action on Wednesday were the women’s team who lost 2-1 to Nigeria.
It was their second defeat after a 10-0 defeat against South Africa in their first game.
The men’s side lost 4-3 to Nigeria and, despite having won one of their matches to collect three points, they were placed bottom in Pool A, behind winners South Africa, with nine points.
Uganda and Nigeria also have three points each but have a superior goal difference.
For Zimbabwe men, their loss to Nigeria was a painful one as it was a close contest.
Nigeria took the lead in the first quarter of the game.
They extended the lead to 2-0 before Zimbabwe replied through Arnold Mpofu in the second quarter.
Alec Chomunorwa levelled the score just a minute from the break and Tadiwanashe Kamusewu weighed in with a goal for a 3-2 lead.
Nigeria found a way to bounce back into the game and they went into the last quarter tied 3-3.
The Nigerians proved to be the better team of the day when they grabbed a last-minute goal to win the match 4-3.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter