adminSchool who are playing in the girls Under-21, boys Under-18 and the Under-12 age-groups respectively at this weeklong tournament.
Mashrhino, a girls Under-12 select side from Mashonaland Province, are also part of Team Zimbabwe at this exciting annual youth handball jamboree that is being staged at different venues here in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city.
And yesterday saw the Zimbabwean teams taking to the courts in the second day of the competition which saw the boys Under-18 side from Howard High taking on Swedish side BK Heid in their third match in Group Six.
The Chiweshe-based schoolboys had a disastrous start during the opening day of the tournament on Tuesday in which they lost heavily to Belgium’s HC Eynatten-Raeren (33-8) and Sweden’s Lugi HF 2 (32-8).
But yesterday saw Howard High putting up a spirited performance against BK Heid who beat them 28-17 in an exciting match at the Heden astroturf courts in central Gothenburg,
Howard High went into this match missing two of their key players, captain Brendon Mutende and left wing attacker Phillip Munyaradzi, through injury.
Mutende has a hip problem while Munyaradzi is playing no further part in this tournament after fracturing his left hand when he landed heavily on it during Howard High’s first match against HC Eynatten-Raeren on Tuesday morning.
Munyaradzi was immediately taken to hospital for treatment and had a plaster put on his left hand, and the doctor said it will take up to five weeks for him to heal.
And when Howard High took to the courts yesterday without the services of their team captain Mutende and the tallest player in their side, Munyaradzi, they were expected to receive another hammering from BK Heid.
But Howard High showed no ghost of inferiority complex against their Swedish opponents who they matched man-for-man as they went down fighting in this match.
Their coach, Bruce Mufandaedza, saluted his charges for giving BK Heid a good run for their money.
“Today we played far much better than yesterday (Tuesday) and we had patience in our roll up. We also made some changes in our team today as we started with second-choice goalkeeper Tinashe Garwe who played a blinder in today’s game.
“We later on introduced our first-choice goalkeeper Rukudzo Tigere in the second half and this helped us to minimise the damage. Our overall performance was superb and my guys now know what to expect at this level of competition,’’ Mufandaedza said.
Meanwhile, Harare’s Girls High School, who are representing Zimbabwe in the Under-21 section of this tournament, were late last night scheduled to play Sweden’s Torslanda HK 2 in their third Group One match after they lost their opening two matches to Kungalvs HK and IK Savehof, both from Sweden, on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Girls High School first lost narrowly (9-10) to Kungalvs HK but they went down heavily to IK Savehof who hammered them 28-5 in their second match.
Girls High School found the going tough in their match against the sleek IK Savehof side who ran away with the match from the first whistle and went to the breather leading their Zimbabwean opponents 15-2.
Mashrhino, Zimbabwe’s other representatives at this tournament, meanwhile, met with mixed fortunes in their opening four matches in the girls Under-12 section.
Playing in Group Eight, Mashrhino first did well to hold OV Helsingborg 2 of Sweden to an 8-8 draw in their first match on Tuesday but they were unfortunate to lose 7-4 to another Swede side Balsta IF in their second game on the same day.
Yesterday saw Mashrhino playing two more matches in the girls Under-12 Group 8 in which they first went down 16-2 to TIK Taastrup of Denmark before they were handed an 8-20 defeat by WAT Funfhaus GRG 15 from Austria.
Mashrhino will wind up their campaign in Group 8 today with another tough match against Sweden’s IK Savehof 1.
Harare’s Girls High School will also be in action today.
They will first take on the United States at 10:15am before facing Team X-Treem from Belgium in their last group match at 12:35pm.
Online Reporter