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Collin Matiza Sports Editor
THE newly-elected Mashonaland West Handball Association have got their development programme off the ground by conducting coaching courses for coaches in their province. Alfos Mhondiwa, the board’s vice-chairman, said yesterday that they have so far trained 77 handball coaches from the Mashonaland West Province in their drive to popularise the sport in their region.
“We have been busy training coaches in the province. We we have covered areas such as Hurungwe, Makonde, Sanyati and Kariba, and a total of 77 coaches have undergone this training programme.
“We are (still) to cover the remaining three districts of Zvimba, Chegutu and Mhondoro Ngezi. I think this will be done in the next three weeks and we are on target to beat our 100 percent mark of 120 coaches this year.
“The Mash West Handball Association, in its strategic plan, aims to extensively increase the technical human resource base in order to fulfil subsequent sporting programmes in the province as such we have engaged the Zimbabwe Handball Federation to conduct a national referees course in the province from October 31 to November 2 at Kuwadzana High School in Banket and all seven districts are invited to send trainees to the course who will officiate in all future activities,” Mhondiwa said.
In a related development, the Mash West Handball Association will hold an end-of-the-year selection tournament on November 2 at Chinhoyi High School.
Mhondiwa said all community clubs, school clubs and teams in the province are invited to send athletes in three categories – boys who were born in 2000 and later, boys and girls who were born 1998 and later.
“The aim of this selection tournament is to establish provincial teams to participate in local leagues and tournaments as well as any international assignments that may come forth.
“Coaches will be assigned to each team for a period of three years where performance will be gradually reviewed,” Mhondiwa said.
Meanwhile, the Mashonaland West provincial handball outfit, Mashrhino, will be having one of its regular training sessions at Chinhoyi Primary School from today to Friday whereupon it travels to Mutare to face a Manicaland side under the tutelage of veteran coach Allan Mandeya on Saturday.
The Mashrhino girls team is a pioneer project designed to carry the provincial “Chipembere” flag and indeed “striving for excellence” is the befitting motto.
Veteran handball coach and administrator Mhondiwa and his assistants Augustine Ndaizivei and Spedia Mwenyemusa will lead Mashrhino to Manicaland at the weekend.
Mhondiwa said their visit to Mutare this weekend was part of their efforts to build a strong team for next year’s Partille Cup tournament in Gothenburg, Sweden.
In July this year, Mashonaland West Province sent Mashrhino, a girls Under-12 side, to the Partille Cup in Gothenburg and Mhondiwa said yesterday they were looking at sending “almost the same side” back to Sweden to take part in the same tournament in 2014.
At Gothenburg this year, Mashrhino were part of a large contingent of 96 athletes and officials from Zimbabwe who took part in the Partille Cup.
The previous year, Mashonaland West Province also sent a team from Zvimba District to the same tournament and Mhondiwa said they were now looking at scoring a “hat-trick” by picking up another side for next year’s Partille Cup which will run from June 30 to July 5 in Gothenburg.
Mhondiwa said they were looking at taking two sides to next year’s Partille Cup – a girls Under-14 team and a boys Under-15 select side – and if they are invited for the Olympic Development Programme, which is held two days before the start of this tournament in Gothenburg, they might also select a number of players who will be added to the national Under-17 team for the same event.
The seasoned handball coach and administrator said they were most likely to select the same players, who played as the Mashrhino Under-12 team at this year’s Partille Cup, to be part of the girls Under-14 side that they would like to compete in the same tournament next year.
Harare’s Girls High School, who were part of Team Zimbabwe at this year’s Partille Cup in July, are also understood to be making arrangements to send two teams to the same tournament next year.
The Partille Cup is the biggest youth handball tournament in the world and is open for girls and boys of ages 10 to 21 years.
It is held annually since 1970 and organised by a Swedish handball club IK Savehof from Gothenburg’s Partille area. During one week every year, nearly 19 000 participants from 50 countries come to participate in this event in Gothenburg.
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