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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
GEMS’ coach Lloyd Makunde has said returning to competition will be a relief for his senior netball national team side after spending more than a year on the sidelines due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The senior national netball team is expected to be part of the teams that will compete for honours in the Pent Series set to be hosted by Namibia.
The competition was expected to take place this month but is now likely to be in July as the organisers are finalising some logistics to meet the Covid-19 protocols in their country.
Zimbabwe Netball Association president, Letitia Chipandu, said they are now waiting for new dates as they had already received their invitation from the Namibian Netball Association.
And emphasised it is an opportunity they cannot afford to miss.
With high hopes for the event, Makunde said it’s good to see competition returning.
“It’s a good thing that we are finally competing in Africa,” he said. “Being idle for a long time will obviously affect our world rankings. I am happy, so are the players to be active again
“We would start by trying to get the players to a certain fitness level. The good thing is that some clubs have started training and I’m praying that all the clubs start so that the players will at least be in better shape after this very long break.
“We need to be on our best, all the stakeholders so as to achieve good results. It’s been a long time, it’s going to be a huge task but everyone is ready. It’s a relief to be able to compete again.”
Chipandu said with the Covid-19 pandemic it’s a bit tough hosting events but is hopeful their counterparts will be able to satisfy all the requirements and go ahead with the tournament.
“We are looking at having the team in camp mid-June or earlier because we can get the new dates anytime, we had already been invited,” she said.
“And we really need to go and participate. If we don’t go it will cost us our ranking. Namibia is not far away, we need to go and participate but without endangering our players.
“The plan is when we get there we play more games, even if there are few teams, we can play home and away.”
Online Reporter