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MANICALAND Province scooped three gold medals at the recently held Heroes Darts Tournament.
The tournament was held in Zvimba, Mashonaland West.
Team Manicaland put up a superb performance and managed to defend their title in the men’s singles, though it was won by a different player.
Three teams from Manicaland participated and these included men, women and a junior teams.
In the men’s closed doubles, Caleb Sigauke together with Selesio Gunda won a gold medal, while Rusape-based Wonder Musuki was crowned the country’s top player after winning gold in the men’s singles.
In the juniors’ category, young Henry Poroto won gold and booked himself a ticket for the juniors’ championships to be held in Windhoek, Namibia in the near future.
The women’s team did not do much as they were knocked out in the quarter-finals. The province’s number one player, Melody Gezana failed to travel with the team due to personal commitments.
Manicaland Darts Association chairman, Joel Marime, was full of praises for the teams’ achievements.
“We went there as a team and played well. The men did a great job and we cannot take anything away from the ladies team, they did their best considering that we had to drop Melo Gezana due to personal commitments. Chipo Nyasha and Maria Mlambo did well. Mlambo had a fractured hand, but still managed to do well.
“Progress and success is coming because we are working as a province since we have players from Rusape, Chipinge and Mutare. We hope to continue aiming high. Most people were surprised by our performance,” he said.
Wonder Musuki, who won gold, had this to say after the competition: “The journey was tough, but I am very happy that I managed to win gold for my province. I want to continue working hard and do more in future.”
Caleb Sigauke was also happy to win gold in the men’s closed doubles where he partnered with Selesio Gunda.
“I am a bit disappointed by failing to defend my title. I am happy for Musuki who did well to bring the gold back home and hope to continue doing well as a province,” he said.
Meanwhile, Golden Arrows last Saturday clinched the Mutare Darts League first-round.
The defending champions, Buffaloes were overpowered to settle for third-place with 27 points, while TelOne was second on 30-points.
The 13-member league under the Mutare District Darts Association is two-phased and will resume its second-round action tomorrow (Saturday).
MDDA organising secretary, Innocent Gomba, said the first round action was very competitive.
He, however, expressed concern over the clubs’ failure to pay annual affiliation fees as well as registering all their players due to financial constraints.
“Most clubs failed to pay the annual $60 club registration fee and $25 player registration fee. This will affect the growth of the sport.
“Unfortunately we are forced to be aggressive on subscriptions because subscriptions are the only way we can continue to run the league.
“I am urging clubs to look for sponsors to assist them because we will not allow unregistered players in the second-round,” said Gomba.
The other clubs in the league are Mangenje, Chutsa Chutsa, KPG, Kurauone, Redwing, Public Works, MTC, Lamour, Raylton and Flying Engine, respectively according to the first round log.
Gomba added that interested clubs that wanted to affiliate in the second-round were still welcome.
The second round will run until November 21.
Online Reporter