adminCollin Matiza Sports Editor
ONE of Sweden’s top handball instructors, Bjorn Larsson, is expected to conduct a three-day international referees course at Jameson High School in Kadoma this week. Larsson was invited to come to this country by the Mashonaland West Handball Association with the blessings of both the Zimbabwe Handball Federation and Swedish Handball Federation. He will conduct this International Handball Federation-recognised referees course from tomorrow to Saturday.
The Swede instructor was initially supposed to run this international referees course with his fellow countryman Markus Christian Sandberg, but the latter cancelled his trip to Zimbabwe at the last minute after he fell sick, according to the vice chairperson of the Mashonaland West Handball Association, Alfos Mhondiwa.
“We were told that the other Swedish instructor who was supposed to come here for this week’s international referees’ course, Markus Christian Sandberg, has a serious fever and he unfortunately could not travel to Zimbabwe.
“But all the same, we are glad to say that we still have one top Swedish instructor, Bjorn Larsson, who is coming down to run this high-level international referees course which we feel will go a long way in raising the officiating standards of handball in this country,” Mhondiwa said yesterday.
The Mashonaland West Handball Association’s vice chairperson also said they had an overwhelming response from the local officials for this week’s three-day international referees course at Jameson High School in Kadoma.
“We are expecting more than 50 participants most of whom are coming from the Mashonaland West Province and I think this is also good for us as the Mashonaland West Handball Association as this will see us having more qualified officials who will handle matches at our tournaments in the province.
“This, I think, is a very positive step in the right direction because the large number of qualified officials will also stimulate more interest in the sport of handball in the Mashonaland West Province and the surrounding areas,” said Mhondiwa, a seasoned handball administrator, coach and instructor.
As an incentive to the course participants, the outstanding officials at this referees course will be invited to officiate at the Partille Cup in the next editions of this big youth international handball tournament in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The Mashonaland West Handball Association’s international partners from Sweden have indicated that they would like to invite a number Zimbabwean handball referees to officiate at the Partille Cup and the participants who would have done well at this week’s international referees course will get this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of being invited to handle some of the matches at this tournament in Gothenburg in the future.
This week’s international referees course will be held simultaneously with the 2015 Mashrhino Cup, a junior handball tournament that is designed for players under the age of 18. Mhondiwa said they will stage the Mashrhino Cup as part of their preparations for next year’s Hanse Cup in Hamburg, Germany.
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