adminboys and girls of ages 10 to 21 years.
It has been held annually since 1970 and organised by a Swede handball club, IK Savehof from Partille.
In fact, the Partille Cup is the world’s largest handball tournament for young people and during one week every year, nearly 19 000 participants from 50 countries descend on Gothenburg to participate in the cup.
And the Zimbabwe Handball Federation were once again invited to compete in this year’s Partille Cup where they are sending a strong contingent of 96 athletes and officials.
This is going to see the ZHF becoming the first national sport association from Zimbabwe to send more than 90 athletes and officials to a single major international tournament outside this country since we attained our Independence in April 1980.
At this year’s Partille Cup, Zimbabwe will be represented by teams from four schools — Harare’s Girls High School, Howard High School, Houghton Park Primary School and Chishawasha Primary School — and they will be joined at this tournament by Mashrhinos, a girls Under-12 select side from Mashonaland West Province.
And the first batch of Zimbabwean athletes and officials for this year’s Partille Cup is set to leave the country today for Gothenburg and it will be made up of 46 players and coaches from Girls High School and Howard High School.
They are first expected to take part in an Olympic Development Programme, which will run from tomorrow to Sunday, where they will have the opportunity of playing against some of the top young Swedish handball teams before they go on to take part in the main event — the Partille Cup.
Team Zimbabwe for this year’s Partille Cup was yesterday given a resounding send-off at Girls High School in Harare where the principal director in the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Paul Damasane, was the guest of honour.
And in thanking the parents for helping the ZHF to send the young Zimbabwean athletes to this year’s Partille Cup, Damasane urged them to use sport as a tool to build communities.
“Handball is one of the fastest growing sporting disciplines in the country and this evidenced by its presence in all the 10 provinces. I am told that handball is unisex thus providing an opportunity for both girls and boys to participate in sport. Sport is not just play which enhances our wellbeing. It encourages teamwork among the participants, improvement of decision-making skills among the players as they have to decide whether they have to pass the ball or to shoot. These skills can easily be translated into real life situations and assist them to lead a better life. To this end, I wish to applaud the Zimbabwe Handball Federation for its efforts to ensure that the young people are provided with this opportunity.”
Damasane also said that it was his Ministry’s policy that sport should be accorded the same status in the school curriculum.
“Sport development without the right exposure will not take us anywhere (and) it is in this light that I would like to recognise and appreciate in a special way the work done by the Zimbabwe Handball Federation for they have availed a chance to our children to participate in one of the world’s biggest youth handball tournaments in Sweden,” Damasane said.
He was also convinced that the Zimbabwean athletes and coaches are going to gain a lot from their participation in this year’s Partille Cup, as they will learn the modern training and coaching techniques from other countries during this tournament. Amon Madzvamuse, the ZHF president, meanwhile, saluted the parents for helping them to send a team to this year’s Partille Cup.
“Although we have Afdis and Chicken Inn among our sponsors, the main sponsors of this trip are the parents. Had it not been for their support, we were not going to talk about (our participation) in Sweden.”
The ZHF boss also said they will continue to work extra hard to make sure that handball becomes one of the biggest sporting disciplines in Zimbabwe.
He also urged members of Team Zimbabwe for this year’s Partille Cup “to go to Sweden and make the nation proud” by taking one of the three podium places in the respective age-groups that they will be competing in.
Meanwhile, the ZHF were yesterday still struggling to raise US$5 000 that they required to meet some of Team Zimbabwe’s expenses during their participation in the Partille Cup.
“We need this money to, among other things, meet some of the daily expenses of the officials that are travelling with the team to Sweden but as of today (yesterday), no well-wisher has come to our rescue and we are just hoping and praying that someone will come in to help us out before the first batch of athletes and officials leave for Gothenburg tomorrow night (tonight),” Madzvamuse said.
And Beauty Mutsambiwa, the NASH national head for handball, said yesterday that Zimbabwe’s participation at this year’s Partille Cup would be an eye-opener for most of the athletes and officials who are travelling with the team to Gothenburg. She said the tournament will also help the ZHF to identify talent and groom future national team players.
“Handball is an Olympic sport so there is great need to develop it at grassroots level. The aim is to produce junior national team players who will represent Zimbabwe and also proceed to senior national teams. It is also important for players to get exposure and the skills to play competitive handball. The teams that are going to participate in the Partille Cup are going to benefit a lot.”
Online Reporter