adminthis country, the International Handball Federation have given Zimbabwe the greenlight to host a First Degree international coaching course next month.
The one-week high level handball-coaching course, which is set to run from August 28 to September 3 at the Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex, is expected to attract more than 40 coaches from the Zone Six region.
Breaking this “exciting news” yesterday, the Zimbabwe Handball Federation chief executive, Amon Madzvamuse, said that apart from giving them thumbs up to host this course, the IHF will also provide a senior lecturer from Switzerland who will run this seminar.
“Once again as the ZHF, we wrote to the IHF, which is the world’s handball governing body, asking them to give us the greenlight to host a high level coaching course for coaches and referees in the Southern African region.
“This is a First Degree handball-coaching international course and I’m glad to announce that the IHF have given us the go-ahead to host it.
“The most exciting part of this is that we are going to have or host top handball coaches and referees from the Zone Six region,” Madzvamuse said.
The Zone Six is made up of 10 countries from the Southern African region – Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Madzvamuse said they have sent invitations to all these countries and Malawi have already confirmed their participation in this course.
“In fact, we are expecting to have 20 coaches and referees from Zimbabwe while each invited country is expected to send four participants.
“So far, Malawi have already confirmed their participation and we are hoping to get more confirmations from the other invited countries by the end of this month,” Madzvamuse said.
The ZHF boss said this is the first time that Zimbabwe will be hosting such an important IHF-approved international coaching course for coaches and referees.
“This is the first of its kind in the history of handball in Zimbabwe and we (the ZHF) are going to make sure that it’s going to be a resounding success.”
The IHF, through their managing director Amal Khalifa, have already pledged their full support in the hosting of this international coaching course for coaches and referees by Zimbabwe.
Khalifa, in his letter to the ZHF, dated July 14 2011, said they were pleased to hear that the organisation was planning to hold a coaching course from August 28 to September 3.
“The IHF will support you in this course and we are currently looking for a well-experienced IHF lecturer (from Switzerland).
“As requested in your email of May 23, the IHF will cover the flight ticket, daily allowances and insurance for the lecturer. The Zimbabwe Handball Federation needs to organise and pay for accommodation (at least at a four-star hotel), food as well as the visa costs for the IHF lecturer,” read part of Khalifa’s letter to the ZHF.
The IHF have also requested the ZHF to avail a local lecturer who will assist the IHF lecturer in running this course.
Madzvamuse said since the IHF have “rubber stamped” the hosting of this international coaching course, they were now going to mobilise resources for the successful staging of the seminar.
“We are currently working on a budget of about US$5 000 for the course and we are also going to come up with come Zimbabwean lecturer who will join the IHF after this event.
“The local lecturer will be posted to Zone Five, which is made of countries from the East African Region, and will help in the development of handball in that part of the African continent.
“We hope and trust that this candidate will meet the required IHF (coaching) standards,” Madzvamuse said.
Meanwhile, Madzvamuse said the ZHF would like to continue building good relationships with the IHF as well as with the Sports Commission and the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee.
“We recently received handball kit from the IHF for our development programme and this shows that our relationship with world’s handball governing body is growing.
“And our other wish as a national association is to be in good standing with our local partners who include the Sports Commission and the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee.”
Bongani Ndlovu