adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
MANYAME Falcons and Manyame Queens are the 2017 Zimbabwe Handball Federation Champions’ Cup winners after dominating in the men and women’s categories respectively on Saturday at Southerton Primary School in Harare.
The tournament brought down the curtain to the 2017 ZHF season.
Manyame Falcons dismissed Big Elephants Club (BEC) 7-3 in the men’s section to walk away with the title for this inaugural event.
On their way to the finals, Manyame Falcons proved to be a force to reckon with, winning all their matches in Pool A. They defeated Sharks, Masvingo select side and their sister club Manyame to proceed to the semi-finals.
They then overpowered Pool B’s runners-up Black Rhinos 6-5 in the semi-finals while BEC prevailed over Manyame who were Pool A’s runners-up 4-3 in a tightly contested match that could have gone either way.
In the women’s section, the teams battled it out in a round-robin and the title went to Manyame Queens who came out tops with nine points. They beat Masvingo, Black Rhinos and BEC to amass nine points.
The Manyame teams, are all under the guidance of Alouis Toma Nyamhanga, who attributed their victory to teamwork and determination.
“The competition was a little bit tough because we had so many competitive teams, Black Rhinos from Harare, BEC and a team from Masvingo. So winning was sheer determination and hard work. It helped us so much to get this victory.
“We assembled these teams in 2014, then it was more of a learning curve. We have a mixture of experienced and young players, that’s the reason why they are able to achieve more,” said Nyamhanga.
For their efforts the winning teams from both sections got trophies, a playing kit and t-shirts.
ZHF secretary-general Edison Chirowodza said they were pleased with the quality of play but raised concern over the low turnout.
“What we saw, is there is high level of competition especially at club level although some clubs could not make it because they had some challenges.
“But for the clubs that took part we witnessed some quality play and competitiveness. We also witnessed some good discipline from the teams that came yesterday (Saturday),” said Chirowodza.
This was their second national tournament for clubs after the one they held in Masvingo early this year at the beginning of the season. Most of the clubs have been relying on provincial leagues for competition.
Chirowodza, however, said they would want to see more clubs and provinces coming on board not only for national events but starting at provincial level if the sport is to grow.
“As we go forward to 2018 we look forward to have more clubs and provinces taking part starting from provincials, then national level.
“Last week we visited Matabeleland North and we had an all stakeholders meeting, so we have an interim executive board for Matabeleland North led by Taurai Muberekwa.
“We had an audit for the Bulawayo executive, so we will continue visiting the provinces and we want to see more of handball activities starting from ward level. So far we have visited two provinces and we will continue with the exercise. By end of February we should have completed,” said Chirowodza.
The other members of the interim executive for Matabeleland North are Chariot Dhlamini, who is the vice-chairperson, secretary Sikhululiwe Mutame and treasurer Sibusisiwe Shumba.
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