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Ellina Mhlanga
Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S Under-20 and Under-18 women’s handball squads are scheduled to converge at Girls High School in Harare for a camp starting today in preparation for the forthcoming Zone VI (Africa) International Handball Federation Trophy Women 2023.
The regional tournament is due to take place from May 23 to 27 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Zimbabwe are fielding both Under-20 (junior) and Under-18 (youth) teams.
Zimbabwe Handball Federation secretary-general Edson Chirowodza said the camp is running until Sunday. They will be training at Queen Elizabeth School.
“We have a camp for our Under-18 and Under-20 girls starting tomorrow (today) and is running until the 16th (of April).
“It will be a final selection and training camp. We had regional trials, then national trials in Harare last month.
“So we are fielding both Under-18 and Under-20. The tournament is taking the same nature and approach with what happened with the men’s teams. It’s also a qualifier for the World Youth and Junior Championships,” said Chirowodza.
Zimbabwe hosted the men’s event last year, which served as the first step for qualification to the World Junior and Youth Championships.
Just like the men’s tournament, the upcoming event is serving as the first step towards qualification for the World Youth and Junior Championships.
Winners from the regional tournament progress to the continental show-piece to be held later in the year and the winning team per age-group, qualify for the global tournament.
“If they win in South Africa they go for the continental championships. So it’s one team per age-group that qualifies for the continental event and one team from the continental phase per age group qualifies for the World Youth and Junior Championships.
“So this is the first camp. There are proposed dates for other camps. They are going to have two or three more camps before going to South Africa. Their next camp will be in Bulawayo,” said Chirowodza.
Sipho Mahlangu is the head coach for the Under-20 and team manager is Eunice Rice.
Moreways Changa takes charge of the Under-18 side with Emmaculate Matimbe coming in as the team manager.
Matimbe said for the Under-18 they are expecting more than 20 players to report for camp today.
“We are expecting not less than 20 players. So far those that have confirmed are 19, and some are yet to confirm . . . but I am sure by the end of day today we will have more than 20.
“We are expecting to see to it that we have a strong team. We are saying we are trying to make sure that every position is filled with a strong player.
“We are going to look at physical fitness, knowledge of the game, then the playing positions themselves,” said Matimbe.
Meanwhile, the ZHF beach handball commission is scheduled to hold trials on Saturday at Girls High School, Harare to select players for the women’s national team.
They will do the same in Bulawayo on April 29.
Beach handball is still in its introductory phase in Zimbabwe and Chirowodza said they are looking at building teams for the future.
“We had our first activities in Binga last year, so now we are in the process of building a national team.
“We are also going to have a beach handball course. Initially we had intentions to participate in the ANOCA Games in Tunisia with the ladies. But unfortunately we didn’t meet some of the time-lines for registration.
“It’s our first time, we are working on building these teams for future competitions,” said Chirowodza.
The ZHF secretary general said they are hoping to take the team to South Africa for some friendlies that will run concurrently with the Zone VI tournament.
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