Machingura in dreamland

But the 10-year-old Grade Five pupil at Ayshire Primary School at Mazvikadei in Banket is set to get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of representing Zimbabwe at one of the biggest youth team handball tournaments in the world — the Partille Cup — which is set to run from July 1 to 7 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Partille Cup is a youth team handball competition open for both boys and girls of ages 10 to 21 years. It is held annually since 1970 and organised by a Swedish handball club IK Sävehof from Partille.

In fact, the Partille Cup is the world’s largest handball tournament for young people. During one week every year, nearly 19 000 participants from 50 countries come to participate in the event.

Zimbabwe will this year be represented at the Partille Cup by a strong team of 96 players and officials, and the players will be drawn from Harare’s Girls High School, Howard High School from Bindura, Chishawasha Primary School from Mashonaland East, Harare’s Houghton Park Primary School and Mashrhino, a girls Under-12 select side from Mashonaland West.

And young Machingura is part of the Mashrhino side that was this year picked to be part of Team Zimbabwe for the 2013 Partille Cup.
In fact, Mashrhino is made up of 17 young schoolgirls who were selected from Kadoma, Sanyati, Mhondoro-Ngezi, Chegutu, Zvimba and Makonde areas of the Mashonaland West Province and they are expected to leave Harare this Friday to take part in the Partille Cup.

For all these young schoolgirls this will be their maiden trip outside our borders and they can’t wait to board the plane on Friday for Gothenburg via Copenhagen, Denmark.
Mashrhino have been preparing for this tournament since a selection competition was held in February this year and they spent the past week polishing themselves up at Mutorashanga Country Club in Mutorashanga under the guidance of coaches Spedia Mwenyemusa, Augustin Ndaizivei and Vengai Jenami.

Seasoned handball coach Alfos Mhondiwa is the team’s technical director.
On Saturday, Amon Madzvamuse, the president of the Zimbabwe Handball Federation, paid the team “a courtesy call” at Mutorashanga Country Club where he watched them playing Sodbury Primary School in one of their final preparatory matches for the Partille Cup and he left the scene a very satisfied man after watching the Sweden-bound youngsters displaying some good handball skills.

But it was the pint-sized Machingura who caught the eye of many with her shooting prowess as she led the Mashrhino attack with aplomb and the team’s technical director Mhondiwa said the Ayshire Primary School pupil was one of their key players to watch during the Partille Cup.

“Marlon (Machingura) is one the several talented young handball players who we identified for this year’s Partille Cup. She was identified by one of our coaches Augustin Ndaizivei who is a teacher at Ayshire Primary School. As you’ve just witnessed today, she is a talented player and one for the future, and I think taking her and her teammates to the Partille Cup will give them the much-needed international exposure while they are still young.

“In fact, we also have another talented player in our team, captain Vimbai Chiwara, who is a pupil at Martindale Primary School in Chegutu and she is a good team leader.
“Most of these players in our side have been playing handball for two years now and they are all looking forward to this trip. They are all excited about it because this will be the first time that they will be travelling outside Zimbabwe to take part in a major international sporting event and they just can’t wait to go there.

“The morale in our camp is sky high because we have been receiving enormous support from people like (the Minister of Local Government and Urban Development) Ignatius Chombo, Zimplats, Ayshire Mine in Mazvikadei and the local farmers.

“Felix Kachidza, the Mashonaland West Province’s education inspector for Sport, Arts and Culture, has also been very supportive during our preparations for the Partille Cup,” Mhondiwa said.

These sponsors, Mhondiwa said, helped Mashrhino to raise much of the US$40 000 they had budgeted for for their participation at this year’s Partille Cup in Gothenburg.
ZHF president, Madzvamuse, said the presence of the Mashrhinos’ girls Under-12 select side at this year’s Partille Cup meant that their efforts of spreading the sport to all the four corners of the country were bearing fruit.

“We deliberately extended an invitation to Mashrhinos to be part of Team Zimbabwe for this year’s Partille Cup because we wanted to show the nation that handball is not only played in big areas or places such as Harare, Bulawayo or Mutare but it has spread to all the four corners of Zimbabwe.

“We, as the ZHF, are very excited that the handball leaders in Mashonaland West took up this challenge (of participating in the Partille Cup) and mobilised resources which will enable us to send these promising and talented players to showcase their skills in Gothenburg next month.

“What I’ve seen here in Mutorashanga is unbelievable because these kids are good handball players, especially Marlon Machingura, and we need to keep on encouraging them to play the sport until they get to the university level or beyond. The future of handball is really bright in this country,” Madzvamuse said.

While Mashrhino indicated that they have paid for almost all their expenses for the Partille Cup, the country’s handball motherbody, the ZHF, are still struggling to raise US$5 000 which will go towards buying some of the kit of the other players in the teams that were picked to represent Zimbabwe at this tournament.

Alphios Magiya, the ZHF secretary-general, said yesterday their plea for some financial assistance from the corporate world has so far fell into deaf ears but he was still confident that they would raise the required funds before the first batch of athletes and officials from Team Zimbabwe leave for Sweden on Thursday evening.

“We are appealing to any well-wisher to come to our rescue as we are still US$5 000 short in our budget but we are determined to send our athletes to this major international handball event in Sweden because it gives our promising young handball players the much-needed international exposure,” Magiya said.

The ZHF secretary-general also revealed that Harare’s Morgan High School were no longer part of Team Zimbabwe for this year’s Partille Cup as they failed to raise the airfares for the trip to Sweden.

“Morgan High are no longer going to compete at the Partille Cup but we have invited three players and three officials from this school to travel with us to Sweden. But on a positive note, we have decided to combine Chishawasha and Houghton Park primary schools into one team and they will be part of Team Zimbabwe for this event.

“So, at the moment, I can safely confirm that our first batch of 46 players and officials from Girls High School and Howard High will leave Harare for Sweden on Thursday evening and they will first take part in an Olympic Development Programme where they will also have the opportunity of playing against local teams from Sweden before they participate in the main tournament – the Partille Cup.

“This Friday will see 23 players and officials from Mashrhino flying out to Sweden for the same event while the last group of 27 players and officials from Chishawasha and Houghton Park primary schools will leave the country on Sunday next week,” Magiya said.

This total group of 96 people will be the largest contingent of athletes and officials from a local national sport association to represent Zimbabwe at a single major international sporting event since the attainment of Independence in April 1980.

Mashrhino Squad for the Partille Cup

Vimbai Chiwara (captain), Tanaka Sithole, Gamuchirai Nyasulu, Sandra Sigela, Patience Madhumo, Marlon Machingura, Rutendo Ganyaupfu, Evidence Tsopero, I ‘N’ I Mberi, Munashe Mutsamwira, Farai Mutsvangwa, Tatendaishe Rabengayi, Panashe Zhou, Sharon Mangwengwende, Lesdale Kwendambairi, Prince Kakawa, Susan Guzha.
Technical team: Alfos Mhondiwa (technical director), Lilian Chiketa (team manager), Spedia Mwenyemusa (coach), Augustin Ndaizivei (coach), Monica Mudenhe (medic), Vengai Jenami (coach).