adminZimbabwe were once again invited to take part in this year’’s handball jamboree where they will field three boys and girls teams who will represent the country in three age-groups —the Under-13, 18 and 20.
Zimbabwe are the only country from the Southern African region who are going to take part in this year’s Partille Cup but they will be joined at this tournament by six other top handball-playing countries in Africa who include Kenya and Egypt. And Zimbabwe were the first African countries to arrive in Gothenburg for the 2013 Partille Cup tournament on Friday evening with a group of 46 athletes and officials who flew in here via Dubai and Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Zimbabwean athletes who arrived here on Friday are from Harare’’s Girls High School and Howard High School from Bindura and they were joined on Saturday night by another group of 23 athletes and officials from Mashrhino — a girls Under-13 select side from Mashonaland West Province.
The last group of 27 Zimbabwean athletes and officials is expected to arrive in Gothenburg tonight.
This group, which will be led by the president of the Zimbabwe Handball Federation, Amon Madzvamuse, will be made up of Under-13 players from Chishawasha Primary School which is in Mashonaland East Province.
Chishawasha Primary School will represent Zimbabwe in the Under-13 competition at this year’’s Partille Cup together with Mashrhino.
Howard High School will represent Zimbabwe in the boys Under-18 competition while Harare’’s Girls High School will carry the country’’s flag in the girls Under-20 section at this competition which officially gets underway tomorrow and will end on Saturday.
Howard High School and Girls High School arrived in Gothenburg on Friday well ahead of the start of the Partille Cup as they were invited to take part in a two-day Olympic Development Programme which ran here from Saturday to yesterday.
The purpose of this project is to give countries where handball is not fully developed a chance to get a platform for handball.
In fact, by running the Olympic Development Programme, the organisers of the Partille Cup wants to create a lifelong interest in sport especially handball.
At the Olympic Development Programme, managers, coaches and players get a basic education in handball, both in theory and practice.
Players will also be inspired, not only in the role as a player, but also as a future leader that affect schools and teachers and adults to form clubs, start competitions and teach handball. In fact, the organisers of the Partille Cup have since 2009 arranged a development programme in co-operation with the International Handball Federation and support from the International Olympic Committee.
This year, the organisers of the Partille Cup organised a project in the Olympic spirit and six countries — Chile, the United States, China, England, Scotland and Zimbabwe — were invited to take part in this project.
The teams arrived here in Gothenburg a couple of days earlier to train and play friendly matches. Here, managers, coaches and players got the best opportunity to establish contacts and make friends who have the same interests.
Yesterday, both the Zimbabwe boys Under-18 team and girls Under-20 sides played England in two friendly matches as part of this Olympic Development Programme project.
The Zimbabwe girls side did well to beat their British opponents but the boys fell to the Britons.
Yesterday’s matches allowed the two teams to fine-tune themselve—s before the start of the 2013 Partille Cup today.
Online Reporter