adminFungayi Munyoro : Sports Correspondent
MUTARE Polytechnic men’s volleyball team won gold at the just-ended Tertiary Education Sports Association (TESA) Games held at Milton Park High School in Bulawayo recently. A total of 10 colleges battled it out in this year’s edition of the Games. Mutare Poly was in Group A together with Kushinga Pikhelela of Marondera, Joshua Nkomo Poly, Bulawayo and Masasa.Group B comprised of Masvingo, Kwekwe polytechnics, Westgate, Gweru and Zimbabwe School of Mines.
In the group stages, Mutare Poly put up a superb performance and dismissed all opponents with an identical two-nil margin and came out as group winners before progressing to the semi-finals with Zimbabwe School of Mines.
In the semi-finals, they played the best of three and dispatched the miners 3-0 to book a place in the finals.
In the final encounter, they met Masvingo Poly which they thrashed 3-0 again to be crowned the 2016 champions.Mutare Poly coach, Hapison Mangezi, hailed his men for a job well done and could not hide his joy.
“I don’t know what to say, but I am very delighted with our victory. The boys went out there with a positive mind and brought gold. One important thing is that we finished the whole tournament without losing a single set.
“We now have to work hard as we are proceeding to the ZITISU Games to be played in Bulawayo in July. I know we will meet great teams there, but I promise fireworks. I respect the teams such as MSU and Great Zimbabwe since they are our rivals, but we will fight hard and we need to qualify for the CUCSA games,” he said.
Mutare Poly captain, Wengesayi ‘Blaz’ Duwati, who is among the best players that the college has produced, said that the tournament was so challenging and they were working hard preparing for the ZITISU Games.
“We are very happy that we won it for our province though the tournament was very tough. We have proved that we are the most powerful side since 2012.
“We have been grabbing gold medals. One thing that our association needs to do is to source for sponsorship and this will help us greatly as players.
We also wish to play in the national league and this will change the face of volleyball in our province.
“Our province has talented players, but we don’t have a good league. We are now focusing on the ZITISU Games and looking forward to grab gold medal again and represent Zimbabwe in the CUCSA Games to be held in Zimbabwe later this year,” said Duwati.
Online Reporter