Zim handball look to the future

youth handball tournament and is open for ages from 10 to 21 for both boys and girls.
This event has been held annually here in Gothenburg, Sweden, since 1970 and it has been used by most of the world’s top handball-playing nations as a platform to identify talented players which they will later groom and nurture for their national teams.

Most top handball players in the world who have featured at major international sporting events such as the Olympic Games and the World Handball Championships have at one stage played at this Partille Cup tournament in the past.

“Participating in the Partille Cup is not all about winning or coming out tops in this tournament but it mainly helps small handball-playing countries like Zimbabwe to take the sport seriously.

“This tournament also helps us to bring the kids whom we would have identified back home to come here and showcase their skills but at the same time learning more about the sport from coaches and players from the developed countries, especially here in Europe.’’

Zimbabwe this year sent four teams to the Partille Cup — Harare’s Girls High School, Howard High School, Chishawasha Primary School and Mashrhino, a girls select side from Mashonaland West Province.

Harare’s Girls High School represented the country in the girls Under-21 section of this tournament while Howard High played in the boys Under-18 category and Mashrhino carried the country’s flag in the girls Under-12 competition.

Chishawasha Primary School also played in the Under-12 age-group.
And although all these teams failed to qualify for the play-offs of the respective age-groups that they played in after losing in most of their group matches in the opening two days of the Partille Cup on Tuesday and Wednesday, Mhondiwa saw a lot of positives in the youngsters’ participation at the world’s biggest youth handball tournament this year.

“We brought with us a group of some young promising players from Girls High School, Howard High, Chishawasha Primary School and Mashrhino who did us and the nation proud by just participating in this year’s Partille Cup.

“The players are socialising well with the other players from all over the world but the level of competition is far much ahead of us but I noticed that our kids or players were getting into the groove after each match.