Online Reporter
Zimpapers Sports Hub
AFTER successfully staging two editions of the International Handball Federation Trophy Zone VI men’s youth and junior teams’ tournament, Zimbabwe are now scheduled to host the women’s event this year, between April and May.
Zimbabwe won the bid to host the IHF Trophy Zone VI women’s junior and youth tournament in November.
It is due to take place from April 28 to May 4 in Harare and serves as a qualifier for the continental phase.
This comes as a positive development for the sport, having hosted the youth and junior men competitions in 2022 and 2024.
The previous edition of the women’s competition was staged in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2023.
Zimbabwe Handball Federation secretary-general Edson Chirowodza said preparations for the regional tournament are underway with provisional squads already in place.
“Basically, for the past two editions of the IHF Trophy, we have seen our junior men also dominating the regional competitions.
“And we are now preparing for the women’s competitions, which are set for the 28th of April to the 4th of May.
“Zimbabwe won the bid to host this event, and as we speak, we already have our provisional list for the juniors — Under-18 and Under-20 women’s teams.”
Sipho Mahlangu is the head coach for the junior side, and Ozwell Gono is in charge of the youth team.
From the two editions of the Zone VI they have hosted in recent years, the junior men’s side, on both occasions, emerged winners to advance to the continental phase while the youth team won silver twice after losing in the finals.
Only the winning team from the zonal competitions progresses to the continental event.
However, the junior men found the going tough, losing all their matches at the continental level.
As they gear up for the women’s event, the ZHF secretary-general appealed to the government for support.
“Also, given our experience at the continental championship, we believe that if our girls are also to qualify, there is a lot that needs to be done in terms of preparations, also giving them exposure to compete with other nations.
“We also appeal to our government to take a leading role in supporting national teams because we also learned from the past events that we had in Ethiopia that other countries are also injecting a lot of capital in terms of preparations for these major competitions. So, this is our appeal,” said Chirowodza.
Besides the IHF Zone VI, ZHF is hoping the winners from the National Club Championship — Manyame Falcons and Manyame Sparrows — will compete at the 2025 regional Club Championships.
“Our 2024 season was great with a lot of achievements, particularly on the junior side.
“And I would want to say that we also managed to successfully run our regional leagues, and at the end of the regional league we also managed to host our national club championship, which was a success.
“We hope that the winners of the 2024 Senior Club Championship for both men and women will represent Zimbabwe in 2025 at the club championships for the region, which are set to be done early next year.
“The focus is not only for juniors; we hope also that our senior men and women are also going to participate in major events in 2025,” said Chirowodza.
ZHF are also expecting to hold their elective annual general meeting in March.
Siphakeme .Mnindwa
