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THE Zimbabwe Squash Academy recently celebrated their 4th anniversary at Belgravia Sports Club where they staged a tournament for junior and senior players for the first time.
The tournament attracted 40 players who were mainly drawn from Avondale Primary School, Arundel School, Mt Pleasant School, Peterhouse, St George’s, Seke High 5 , Snake Park, Twin Rivers and Watershed.
This event was sponsored by Corporate Gifts World and Zimbabwe Life is Good, the producer and distributors of ZLG mineral water.
“We really appreciate the sponsorship we got from our two sponsors without them this anniversary would not have been successful. A big thank you to Corporate Gifts World and Zimbabwe Life is Good, and in this case life becomes good for sure,” said the academy’s director Mashumba Mukumba.
He said the tournament was a bell tournament and they had groups of mixed men, boys and girls. The groups were Sabi, Shangani, Sebakwe, Zambezi, Limpopo, Odzi, Pungwe and Runde.
“Out of those houses, the players were of different ages and different strength so we had to give a handicap to each age-group according to strength. The Under-11s were starting at 15 points, Under-13 boys 10 points, girls 12 points, Under-14 boys 8 points, girls 10 points, Under-16 boys 4 points, girls 8 points, Under-19 boys 0 points, girls 5 points and as a result it encourages children to compete.
“The tournament went on very well and everyone who played in it had fun, and to most children it was something very new and exciting,” Mukumba said.
The tournament was won by Zambezi who came first with 507 points and the group had the likes of retired veteran squash player Sengi Mlambo, Polite Mubure (Avondale Primary School) , Ben Wu (Watershed) and Tafadzwa Mushunje (Mt Pleasant School).
They won a gold medal and a trophy.
In second place Shangani with 457 points and in their team they had Takudzwa Chuma (Watershed) , Jana Mhlaba (Arundel School), Innocent Mukumba and Takudzwa Mapurisa (Seke High).
The Sebakwe team of Kuziva Madungwe (Arundel School), coach Absolome Business Mukutirwa (Watershed), Chrispen Obinna Chimbowora (Mt Pleasant school), and Tendai Mataruka (St George’s College) came third with 424 points.
“The tournament was played in one day because it had a high intensity and it also needed mental toughness,” Mukumba said.
Online Reporter