These Cheetahs are raring to go

Tinashe Kusema
NATIONAL women’s Sevens coach Abigail Kawonza is optimistic of a good outing when Zimbabwe hosts the Africa Cup tournament this week.
Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Senegal, South Africa, Madagascar, Namibia will battle it out with the hosts at Police Grounds in Harare on Friday and Saturday.
Despite injuries rocking her camp, Kawonza still believes.
The Lady Cheetahs gaffer reckons that lessons learnt at the Olympic Reprecharge tournament in June and the injection of new blood into the team will carry the day.
“The good news is that we did not get a long break between this tournament and our last assignment, the Dublin Olympic Reprecharge tournament in Ireland,” she said. “While our camp did not get the best of starts; we have had a good turnout, everybody is raring to go and there is active competition for jerseys.
“The final week is going to be hectic; we want to finalise our possible combinations, make sure we have a game plan in place and hopefully get good results in the tournament.”
Kawonza declared that Zimbabwe would be out to win the tournament.
“The other thing we have going for us is that we have been realistic in terms of what we want to achieve from the get go.
“The aim of the Ireland tour was to get exposure, we carried a lot of youngsters and I would like to believe that they saw for themselves the level other countries are playing at, the level we are at and ultimately the level we want to reach.
“I see us with a more realistic chance of winning this Africa Cup tournament. The teams we are playing against are more or less at the same level with us, we have home advantage and the vibe in the team is generally positive,” she said.
Preparations have been far from smooth with rookie Debbie Tabuka ruled out due to injury.
“One of my star youngsters, Debbie Tabuka, suffered a major concussion last week and is definitely out of the tournament. She was one of the players we picked from the Under-18 squad and is a good player. We will continue to monitor her condition, after the tournament, and hope to have her back with the team soon,” said Kawonza.