adminCollin Matiza Sports Editor
BLESSING Muhwati consolidated his position as one of the country’s top junior squash players when he retained the Mashonaland Junior Closed title at Highlands Sports Club in Harare last weekend.Muhwati successfully defended his title when he beat Runyararo Kadyautumbe 3-1 in the boys’ Under-19 final of this year’s tournament which attracted 146 players who played in the Under-9, 13, 14, 16 and 19 age-groups.
Another promising young player, Innocent Mukumba, claimed third place in the boys’ Under-19 section after beating Takunda Maswi 3-1 in the third place play-off.
Carley Barton, the winner of the girls Under-16 title at the same tournament last year, was at it again, winning the Under-19 crown this time around after she was awarded a walkover on Shannon O’Donnavan who hurt her shoulder a day before the finals at the weekend.
In the boys’ Under-16 section, the winner was Callum Lawton who outplayed Luke Mannion in the final, winning 3-0 while Polite Mubure emerged triumphant in the girls’ Under-16 competition with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Carley Barton.
This year’s Mashonaland Junior Closed tournament was played at four venues in Harare – Belgravia Sports Club, Old Georgians, St John’s and Highlands Sports Club – and it was the second event of the year after the Belgravia Sports Club’s Club Championship which took place a couple of weeks ago.
Mashumba Mukumba, one of the tournament’s organisers, said this year’s event was “a huge success” as it attracted a good number (146) of both boys and girls who battled it out for the top honours in all the age-groups.
“In fact, 11 boys and 16 girls took part in the Under-9 competition, 17 boys played in the Under-13 section while five girls and 21 boys were in action in the Under-14 category.
“Twenty-two girls and 24 boys took part in the Under-16 section with the Under-19 category attracting 20 girls and 21 boys. In total, we had 146 children who took part in this year’s Mashonaland Junior Closed Championships. The sport is taking a gradual growth as compared to the previous years.
“We are trying our best to attract as many youngsters as we can to the sport, especially those who are still at school though there is a challenge on incentives due to lack of sponsorship.
“We are working flat out on training coaches who will get the sport to grow by sending them into schools or clubs to coach squash,” Mukumba said.
The children, who took part in this year’s tournament, were mainly drawn from private schools and some were from Government schools that play squash and they included Arundel, Convent, Hellenic, Lomagundi, Mount Pleasant, Prince Edward, Peterhouse, Watershed, St George’s College, St John’s College and St Michaels.
The other kids were drawn from the Zimbabwe Squash Academy Trust which caters for players who do not have access to the squash courts.
“The tournament was in preparation of the Zimbabwe Junior Open Championships to be held on February 21 and we will select our Zimbabwe junior team who will represent us at the All-Africa Squash Championships to be held from April 23 to 28 in Alexandria, Egypt.
“Further to that, our team will (also) go and compete in the South African Inter-provincial Schools tournament at Paarl in Cape Town, South Africa, in preparation for the Junior Men’s World Championships that will be held in Windhoek, Namibia, from August 4 to 21. And we are appealing to the corporate world for sponsorship which will go towards our participation at all these competitions because we want to send our best teams there,” Mukumba said.
Online Reporter