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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
NATIONAL men and women’s handball sides coaches have said the camp held last week at Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex was important for them to map the way forward as they look at coming up with teams to represent the country in various competitions next year.

The three-day camp that ran from Wednesday to Saturday was led by former Switzerland national team player Rolf Haussener, working with senior men and women coaches Farai Gwisai and Cleopatra Mareverwa respectively.

The camp, which is the first of several periodic camps lined up by the Zimbabwe Handball Federation, attracted players from different provinces with 26 players for the men’s side turning up and 20 reported for camp for the women’s team.

The senior national teams have not been active of late and the camp was organised by the Zimbabwe Handball Federation in a bid to revive the senior national teams.

Mareverwa, the women’s team coach, said the four-day training camp was an opportunity to assess the players and the door is still open for other players to come on board before she can come up with the final 16.

“This camp was mainly focusing on bringing in players and see their level of skills and the level of fitness. So we looked at the fitness levels and we had quite a number of drills to perfect their skills.

“We also concentrated on synchronising the girls since they were coming from different provinces, there was need for them to be one team, to blend into a team.

“We are still calling other players because we want to make one very good team. So the next periodic camp we might have some other girls who will be joining us, (those) who failed to join us on this first camp. So we are still working on our numbers,” said Mareverwa.

Zimbabwe are hoping to take on Zambia in a friendly match later this year and Mareverwa said they have a lot of work ahead of them but is satisfied with the talent she saw and the progress they made during the camp.

The senior men’s coach Gwisai described the camp as a success but called for more time with the teams.

“The camp was a success because we managed to have 26 players who turned up. We managed to run the camp as scheduled. On the first day we were running a fitness test because we wanted to check their fitness.

“We were looking at our standard of handball as the senior men and we were also doing the selection. Our standard of handball is good but we need to have more time with the players,” said Gwisai.

Gwisai, who is the ZHF coaches’ commission chairperson, said the periodic camps will allow them to engage more players who believe are capable of representing the country before they come up with the final men and women’s teams.