Tour for volleyball

The tour is expected to run from June 15 to November 17 and will cater for the Under-20 and senior teams.
The development comes after a series was held in February to introduce the game and create awareness about the sport in the capital.

That series featured mainly players from Harare and Bulawayo and this tour will also be open to players from other provinces. Beach volleyball committee acting chairperson, Solomon Chinyanyi said they hope the tour will be a success although they are likely to face some challenges since it is their first time to hold such a competition running locally.

“The series was more of an introduction of beach volleyball in Harare, these were people who were just coming to play and were not registered so we could not finish the series because to continue with people who were not registered was difficult. However, for this tour participants will have to confirm and register their partners for the tour which can basically give us a direction of where we are going,” said Chinyanyi.

He said winners of the tour would be decided based on the points they would have accumulated during the season.
“We want to start an actual series to determine winners. It will be done on point basis, the more people participate the more they get ratings on the end of the tour,” said Chinyanyi.

Chinyanyi said they are looking forward to a successful event.
“Judging from the series we had it should go well. This is for Harare but it’s not going to be limited to Harare only but all players registered under ZVA can participate as long as they can foot their expenses. Everyone will be starting as an amateur,” said Chinyanyi.

The acting chairperson, however, said they require a lot of support since the tour will be running for the first time and went on to note that some players may prefer to go for the six-a- side-version which is already established so there is need for sponsorship so that participants can get some incentives.

Despite facing some challenges the sport seems to be doing well with the Under-19 team that took part in the African championships qualifying for the World Cup set for Cyprus in July when they finished second in Congo Brazzaville last week.