adminIn a telephone interview from his Harare base yesterday, the Zimbabwe Volleyball Association secretary-general Ringisai Mapondera said his organisation was looking for funding to enable teams to participate in the qualifiers. The men’s team is scheduled to compete with other nations for Olympic slots from 12-25 January in Cameroon with the women’s qualifiers set for February in Algeria.
Mapondera said the ZVA technical department would decide whether to send teams for the qualifiers or not.
“We received notification that we have to participate at next year’s Olympic qualifiers in Cameroon and Algeria. The ZVA technical department will decide on the way forward depending on the availability of resources.
“Participating at the Olympic qualifiers will be expensive for us as each team has to go with a delegation of 18 people. The airfares to that part of the continent are expensive and we therefore need to mobilise adequate resources,” said Mapondera
Meanwhile, Mapondera said his association was backing South Africa for the presidency of the Confederation of African Volleyball.
The elections will be held at the next congress.
He said the move was meant to try and shift the balance of power from North Africa. “If you look, there are a number of tournaments taking place in North Africa than in Southern Africa. There are more developmental programmes happening in North Africa than in this part of the continent. If we have someone from our region, we are likely to lobby for more competitions and development programmes,” Mapondera said.
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu