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Takudzwa Chitsiga Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe men’s and women’s pool teams returned home from the All Africa Pool Association tournament held at the New Government Complex in Lusaka, Zambia, empty-handed yesterday.
Inexperience proved vital for Zimbabwe who could not manage to bring home a single medal.
The tournament saw Zimbabwe sending two teams for the 2022 edition of the annual competition that had a ticket for 2022 World Blackball Championships to be held in Albi, France, from October 8 to 15 next year.
Zimbabwe returned home empty-handed after they managed to defeat Kenya only in the group stages which also had Tanzania and Uganda. ZIPA official, Donald Wadawu, said they had a torrid time after they travelled with a young team that lacked experience.
“We had a fairly new inexperienced team which did pretty well in the circumstances. We only managed to beat Kenya in our group of four which also had Tanzania and Uganda.
“Most of our players were taking part in the tournament for the first time at the international showcase so inexperience took its toll for most of the lads who were afraid of the big names,” said Wadawu.
Wadawu added that he is happy that the players managed to get some exposure as they played against the continent’s big names.
“We need to make sure that we revamp the tables that our players use because on the international stage they use fast pace turf when ours are slow ones and adopting to the new turf was a mammoth task.
“Planning and sourcing of funds to enable this to happen was also of paramount importance and we thank Ronald Ajara of Ajara Trucking Logistics who was our sole sponsor for transport and the kit for the team,” added Wadawu.
The next AAPA games are scheduled to take place next year in October in Windhoek, Namibia, if they meet all the AAPA requirements or alternatively in South Africa. The AAPA board is yet to make that decision.
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