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THE Lady Cheetahs finished in seventh place at the Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens Olympic Qualifier held in Tunisia at the weekend.
Zimbabwe faced Ghana in the seventh place play off and came out with a 10-0 victory.
The Lady Cheetahs had a bad day in office on the opening day of the tournament losing three matches on the trot.
They lost with an identical scoreline of 26-5 against South Africa and Tunisia.
In the third game against Uganda, they lost 22-0.
It was not the kind of performance that had been expected from the lady team at the qualifiers but the Zimbabwe Rugby Union vice president says all hope is not lost.
“We are disappointed but when you lose you learn. They have learned something as the players and technical team and we have also learned something as the administration.
“There is room for improvement.
“What became evident is they need to play more games. What we need to do now is more competition. We have to organise more competitions with quality opposition and we will improve,” said Shone.
South Africa secured their spot in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris following a 12-7 victory over Kenya in the final of the qualifier. South Africa breezed through day one with comfortable wins against Zimbabwe (26-0), Uganda (19-0) and Tunisia (27-7) .
Second-placed Kenya and Uganda, who beat Zambia 29-10 in the third place play off match will now turn their attention to next year’s repechage, where they’ll have another opportunity to secure the final qualification spot for Paris.
Rugby Sevens made its debut at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Fiji (men) and Australia (women) became the first Olympic sevens champions.
Great Britain and South Africa won silver and bronze medals in the men’s competition, New Zealand and Canada won silver and bronze medals in the women’s division.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will take place from 26 July to 11 August 2024.
Siphakeme .Mnindwa
mbulelo smpofu
