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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
FOLLOWING the Under-21 women’s team qualification for the Junior World Cup, Hockey Association of Zimbabwe president Humphrey Chigwedere says there is need for them to complement the players’ efforts by creating more competition for local teams.

Zimbabwe booked their place at the world event to be held in Chile later this year during the just-ended Junior Africa Cup in Windhoek, Namibia.

They qualified alongside South Africa, who beat them 0-10 in the finals.

Chigwedere said they have struggled to retain most of their players after school which has seen the country failing to do well at continental and international level.

“First of all, we are going to consolidate our database so that we can keep track of the players.

“We are going to make sure that we play a lot of these international matches so that our players have something to play for and look forward to.

“We are also reviving the national league this year. We want to make local hockey competitive so that those that remain here have something to look forward to,” said Chigwedere.

HAZ fielded the men and women’s team at the Junior Africa Cup.

The top two countries in each section qualified for the World Cup.

For Zimbabwe the players had to pay for their travelling expenses, which saw some going by road while others flew to Namibia as the national association struggled to fund the trip.

However, for the World Cup Chigwedere said they are going to meet as the executive to map the way forward in terms of raising funds for the preparations and participation in Chile.

“Specifically for this team, I have asked my executive that we meet when everyone is back in the country to map the way forward.

“We want to make sure that no one pays for the Under-21 trip for the World Cup. We want to put together a strong fund-raising committee to ensure everything is taken care of, that’s the preparations and the trip.

“We will be engaging the Government as usual and all the stakeholders. We have asked the treasurer to come up with a budget, he is away but he promised that by the end of the week he will come up with something.

“We are looking at something between $100 000 to $120 000. But we are going to come up with the actual budget. Once we are done with that we are going to get requirements from the coaching staff to say this is what we need for the preparations and camp,” said Chigwedere.

In the men’s section, Zimbabwe missed out on qualification as they finished third.

Chigwedere commended the team for their effort as they walked away with a bronze medal when they beat Namibia 5-3 in the third and fourth play-offs.

They had lost to Egypt in the semi-finals while Namibia went down to South Africa. Egypt went on to win the tournament when they beat South Africa 3-2 in the finals.

“I think they performed very well considering that they were playing against strong opposition. Namibia itself is not a bad team. We will build our future on these teams,” said Chigwedere.