adminWhile many people are enjoying the festive season holidays, for sports administrators in various disciplines it is work as usual as they plan for 2013 having had a quiet year in 2012.
Zimbabwe Volleyball Association secretary-general, Ringisai Mapondera said they have a busy schedule this year.
Mapondera said they are hoping to come up with various fundraising activities to raise money to fund tournaments.
“We have been trying to revamp subscriptions from our clubs in all provinces. We are mooting on the idea of having everyone in volleyball registering with ZVA. We can also do merchandising, selling a lot of our regalia and replica jerseys and T-shirts because it’s difficult to get money from the corporate world.
“We are looking at maybe $50 000 to fund the events,” said Mapondera.
However, Mapondera noted that their main thrust was on junior development and they were not expecting much from the teams that will be competing in regional and international events because Zimbabwe was still lagging behind in terms of competition.
“Our emphasis is on development, yes we are mandated to compete in these events but we are not looking at winning with those teams.
“Our priority will be on the junior competitions because that’s where our future is. We have the Great Zimbabwe junior development programme, which started last year and will run for eight years. We hope in eight years we should have a team qualifying even for the Olympics.
“Looking at the senior level we do not stand a chance, we don’t expect a miracle,” Mapondera said.
For the Zimbabwe Handball Federation the future is looking bright having gone through some challenges for almost two years.
ZHF president, Amos Madzvamuse revealed that they have been invited to take part in the Partille Cup in Sweden and the Major Festival in Denmark set for July and August respectively.
“We are busy preparing our calendar. We have a lot of local and international activities.
“We have a busy schedule for 2013, we received an invitation to send two national teams and two Under-16 teams for the Partille Cup to be held in July.
“We are also going to have the services of a technical director from Sweden starting from March next year and he will be working with our coaches.
“This was facilitated by the two members from the Sweden Federation, that is Rolph Hausser and Chris Eaton who toured this year and these guys are looking forward to working with us.
“We are supposed to send a team to a Major Festival in Denmark and we are still finalising on that.
“We are going to Malawi for the Zone Six championships in March and we are looking at quite a lot of money,” said Madzvamuse.
Athletics is not to be left out as National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe president, Tendai Tagara said their major competitions for this year were the World Championships and the World Cross-Country Championships in March.
Zimbabwe will also host the Cosasa Championships between April and May.
“The World championships will be held in August in Moscow and it’s quite expensive to send our athletes for these events but we are hoping to take part.
“We are still working on our calendar,” said Tagara.
Local tennis players are also set to travel across the globe with several international competitions on offer and the juniors are already preparing for the International Tennis Federation Southern African Junior Championships taking off on Sunday in Namibia.
Tennis Zimbabwe administrator Cliff Nhokwara said there were several tournaments lined up for this year but it was unfortunate that the national association did not have enough funds to host some of the events locally as it would have been easy for most of the players to play at home.
“We have no sponsor so as such we get funding through parents. It’s not a situation that is unique to Zimbabwe but that’s something done all over the world.
“There is the zonal tournament this month and the winners will progress to the Africa Junior Championships in April.
“We are going to host the 18 and under tournament between July and August.
“There are few team events and the rest are individual tournaments and we will be sending players depending on the countries they are being held,” said Nhokwara.
Cara Black will carry the country’s hopes in women’s tennis on the professional circuit where she is making a comeback after a year’s break to give birth to her first child.
Zimbabwe Karate Union president Joe Rugwete said they would be taking part in various competitions although their main focus was on development and decentralisation of the sport.
The karate union will be hoping for a better year having had a less fruitful year with most fighters who took part in world championships failing to win anything.
“Our main focus is on the long term strategic plan we are presenting at our annual general meeting next month and decentralisation.
“But we are hoping to benefit from the World Karate Federation Seminar to be held in July in Botswana. The federation is sending instructors and they will be training coaches and referees.
“We will compete in the Zone Six championships in Namibia and the World Karate Federation Junior and Cadets championships in Spain in November,” said Rugwete.
The ZKU president said they were putting in place various programmes to raise money for the trips.
It remains to be seen whether 2013 will be different and a fruitful year for the sporting fraternity considering that 2012 did not bring much in terms of achievements by local athletes.
Online Reporter