adminPaul Munyuki Sports Reporter
ADMINISTRATIVE bungling by the Zimbabwe Rugby Union has cost the national Under-18 side a place at the Africa Youth Games that are also being used as qualifiers for the Youth Olympic Games later this year. The Games are set to take place between May 22 and 31 in Gaborone, Botswana, and deadline for player registration was on Monday.
This means that the Under-18 Sevens rugby side — who were among the top medal hopefuls for Zimbabwe — have had their dream shattered following the failure by the Union to commit to the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee regulations.
Hosts Botswana and South Africa are some of the teams that will take part in the rugby competitions with South Africa having confirmed participation and naming their squad exactly two months ago.
But while other unions were busy with programmes that would give exposure and more game time at a younger age, the ZRU were not able to see what was coming. ZOC vice president and chairman of the technical committee, Thabani Gonye, yesterday said the ZRU failed to submit the required documents in time.
Online Reporter