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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
IT’S been two years since the Zimbabwe Handball Federation came up with their Vision 2024 programme.
They said this was meant to help lay a strong foundation that would create and enabling environment for local teams to challenge for medals at international events such as the Olympics.
One of the coaches, who have been working with the team, Innocent Kanosvova, believes the goal remains achievable.
“We are making a huge progress,’’ he said. “With the camps, and training, we now have a team which plays systematically.
“The programme is very important because, as a nation, we have not excelled in regional competitions and, having such a programme, will raise the profile of the sport in the country.
“From the look of things, it is indeed achievable, only if we have exposure, and enough resources, to keep us going.
“We will achieve our goals as a team and as a nation.” The team have been relying on local friendly matches and, in February, they engaged some teams from Mozambique and played matches in Beira.
“It has been a great journey, since we started,’’ he said.
“We had our friendly matches with local clubs which went well.
“We also managed to play against Mozambique’s senior handball clubs, which helped us to iron out areas where we were lacking.
“Unfortunately, we were disturbed by this pandemic, we would have gone far, although we are doing online training sessions with coach Rolf’’s (Haussener) help.’’
Haussener is a Swiss coach who has been engaged to work with local coaches on the project, and has been to Zimbabwe several times for training camps. Team captain, Charles Munyanyi, shared similar sentiments.
“I think by 2024, we would have gained the experience and we can play some of the big teams like Egypt.
“I think we are getting stronger as time passes by.
“Our hope, as players, is also to be scouted by clubs from outside Zimbabwe, that’s why we are working so hard and pushing ourselves,’’ said Munyanyi.
Online Reporter