adminMbachi Mutukula-Maregere Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe women’’s national rugby team coach Abigail Kawonza has started preparing the team for their international tour to Kenya set for next month.
Zimbabwe are expected to travel to Kenya for a women’’s tournament which is scheduled for April 6. They will join countries such as South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, Senegal, Madagascar, Namibia and the hosts Kenya in the tournament.
The Pangolins are in Pool B with Tunisia, Uganda and Namibia. Last year, the tournament was held in Tunisia with a week-long training camp and Zimbabwe coming back ranked fifth in Africa. And their coach Kawonza is confident that the team will bring good results if they work on their strengths and conditioning during their preparations.
The squad of 17 women has intensified its training with three sessions of gym a week sponsored by Pro-Fitness Health Club.
“After the Tunisia tour the technical team identified our strengths and conditioning as our weakness when compared to the other countries.
“As we focus on developing the school girl to take the reins in the coming years we are also making sure the current national representatives can compete against the top names with adequate preparation. With Pro-Fitness coming on board it has greatly helped to try eliminate the gap identified in our training sessions.
“A lot of development is taking place in the schools which has seen school girl rugby growing in leaps and bounds this year.
“The administration is also making sure that such conditioning for athletes will filter down to the top girls. This will yield great results if young athletes are already aware of the conditioning requirements of a top rugby players,” said Kawonza.
Online Reporter