adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
ONE of the coaches leading Zimbabwe’s junior players at the ITF/CAT Southern Africa Junior championships starting today in Botswana Farai Tapfuma says they will be out to leave a mark at the event.
The championships, which are for Under-14s and 16s boys and girls are running from today in Gaborone until Janaury 16 with players from different countries taking part.
Zimbabwe have 12 players drawn from both age-groups, in the boys and girls section.
Some of the players were at the just ended New Winners tournament at Harare Sports Club to finalise their preparations and some of them put up a good show with girls Under-16 player Vimbai Magarira emerging the winner in Under-18.
Claire Machisa, who will play in the girls Under-14 lost in the quarter-finals but won the doubles with Magarira while Tsitsi Mahere reached the singles semi-finals and doubles finals.
Speaking before their departure on Friday, Tapfuma, who was monitoring the players during the New Winners tournament said the players gave a promising performance going into the zonals.
“I think according to their performance, most of them managed to make it through to the finals, showing they are top players here in Zimbabwe.
“I think since we are going to go and play other kids from Southern Africa, they will manage it. I think we are going to try to make it as far as semis or quarter-finals because they are capable of doing it from the performance they were showing here,” said Tapfuma.
Tapfuma, however, said they would need to up their game a bit and work their way to the finals for better chances of making it to the African Junior championships.
“This time it’s going to be a bit tough because there are some players who are going to automatically qualify like 14 players are going to qualify automatically due to their Africa ranking.
“But from the zonals most players who are making it to finals will qualify for AJC plus an ITF player who is going to be selected by the ITF. So we really need to push to the finals,” said Tapfuma.
Tapfuma is leading the team together with Nomvelo Ngwenya and they left the country with 10 players on Friday. They will be joined by China-based Ruvarashe Shoko and Tinashe Taruberekera from South Africa.
Under-16 girls representative, Mahere said after making her debut at the zonal championships last year as an Under-14, she is hoping for a better outcome this year.
“Last year I lost in first round but I played quite a good match, I did surprise myself considering it was my first zonals. I went there with a lot of jitters. But I know that I will do a lot better this year because last year it was just a starter for me. But I will be working my way up the ladder,” said Mahere.
Other countries expected at the event are Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia.
Team
Boys Under-16
Tinashe Taruberekera, Taona Mhwandagara, Zamani Moyo
Boys Under-14
Michael Happy, Benedict Badza, Lyle Zaloumis
Girls Under-16
Rufaro Magarira, Vimbai Moyo, Tsitsi Mahere
Girls Under-14
Claire Machisa, Nicole Matukutire, Ruvarashe Shoko
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