Gems eye Championships bronze

Tadious Manyepo

Zimpapers Sports Hub

GEMS captain Felistus Kwangwa expects Zimbabwe to be more clinical when they play Malawi in the bronze match of the African Championships in Namibia this afternoon.

The Ropafadzo Mutsauki girls were too wasteful and disoriented as they gave South Africa an easy victory in their semi-final showdown yesterday.

Still the opponent could have been Malawi in the last four, but the Gems bottled their final Pool B match against Namibia to then finish second and be on the warpath against the best African team who had expectedly topped Pool B.

With Uganda beating Malawi in the other semi-final yesterday, the Gems will face the latter in a potential thriller for the right to take bronze back to their respective homes.

Zimbabwe were keen to notch up a better finish after securing third place in the same competition last year in Botswana.

But that doesn’t matter now as they have to win to return home with a medal.

And skipper Kwangwa has implored her teammates to keep their eyes on the ball if they are to win against Malawi.

“Firstly, we are disappointed as a team to have been defeated at the semi-final stage.

“We were looking at reaching the final this time around after finishing third in last year’s tournament,” said Kwangwa.

“We are taking this semi-final match against Malawi as a must-win.

“It’s a do-or-die fixture for us. We should throw everything in the courts.

“Above all, we have to be clinical under the ring. This is a match we need to win at all costs.

“We were aiming for gold or silver at worst. But this is sport, you can’t predict anything.

“We just need to play well and be able to put away all chances that we get. We need to get those turn-overs and put them to good use.

“This is Malawi and they are a very good team. They are ranked above us and that makes them a dangerous outfit.

“But obviously we will put everything to get a win.”

Despite losing in the semi-final, the Gems have shown a lot of improvement.

Perhaps their recent tour of the UK improved them in so many ways.

The Gems participated in the Celtic Cup where they played against Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in Glasgow last month.