Chronicle Editor
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
THE fixtures for the 2023 Hockey Junior Africa Cup have been released by the Africa Hockey Federation. The tournament is set to start on March 12 in Egypt.
A total of 11 countries will take part in the one-week long tournament and have teams in the men’s and women’s sections.
Ghana is the only country that will have one side. Six countries will participate in the men’s section and five in the women’s.
In the women’s section, the teams taking part are Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt, in the men’s category Ghana will join the five nations to make it six.
Zimbabwe women will get off their campaign against Nigeria in the opening day of the tournament, with the championship’s first game being between Kenya and Egypt.
On the following day, Zimbabwe will play against Kenya before going on to face the hosts, Egypt on Wednesday March 15.
Their round robin games will be concluded by a match against neighbours, South Africa on Saturday March 18, which will also mark the end of the round robin games, shifting to the knockout stages.
On the men’s side, Zimbabwe will play against Egypt in the opening match on Sunday, March 12, before they go on to face South Africa on the following day.
The Southern African derby will be followed by a match against Nigeria before they go on to face Ghana and round up their league fixtures with a clash against Kenya.
The two sides have had their preparations on the field of play going well despite facing sponsorship challenges as they build up to the event.
The Hockey Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) has been appealing for assistance from individuals and corporates to help facilitate the team’s trip to North Africa.
Last week, the association announced that they are 40 percent short of their target with time no longer on their side.
They have had a number of fundraising initiatives of which some of them have been successful.
“We have had a number of fundraising initiatives that have come on and been successful in terms of raising what we have raised so far, we are short by 40 percent of the target and we are now pushing for our final drive, final appeal so that we get our boys and girls out to Egypt next month,” said HAZ executive board member, Cliff Kaseke in an interview with Chronicle Sport at the end of last month.
Despite sponsorship challenge, the two teams have shown to have what it takes to fly the Zimbabwean flag high on the international stage.
At the beginning of February, they took part in exhibition matches at the beginning of the month in Harare where they played against select teams at Saint John’s Trust Astro Turf and both teams won their encounters 2-0.
Last week, the boys’ side was in Bulawayo where they played against local teams and managed to, once again produce good results, as a sign of their readiness to conquer Africa as they have been fine tuning for some time.
The Junior Africa Cup will serve as a direct qualifier for the 2023 Junior World Cup, with the winner and runner-up qualifying. – @brandon_malvin
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