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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE Mighty Warriors should brace up for a higher level of competition when they make their debut appearance at the 2016 Olympic Games next year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Zimbabwe Olympic Committee president, Admire Masenda, feels that the Mighty Warriors have to step up their preparations to try and match world standards if they are to leave a mark at the event.

Speaking at a luncheon hosted by Sport and Recreation Minister, Makhosini Hlongwane, for the team after their historic qualification for the Rio Games earlier this week, Masenda said adequate preparations were key.

“This is a new level , the preparation has to be at a totally different level. The players or the countries that you are going to be playing against, most of those players are probably in the national team or vying for the national team, so they are probably playing at World Cup level.

“So the preparation has to be at a much higher level,” Masenda said. The ZOC president also congratulated the team and said they have carved an indelible piece of history in Zimbabwe’s participation at the Games.

Masenda said they are now working to a current estimated team of 32 athletes and 27 officials before adding that the last time Zimbabwe sent a team close to that was in 1980 when the country participated at the Moscow Games.

And the size of the team was as a result of the hockey women’s team.

Masenda’s remarks comes after Sports Commission director general, Charles Nhemachena made the same sentiments after the Mighty Warriors game against Cameroon.

“We have actually better prospects of advancing with them perhaps than their male counterparts. But what is more important is that we need to prepare for the Olympics, it is not going to be a stroll in the park.

“We are not going to achieve anything if we are going to proceed along the lines that we have been doing, where we have short term preparations and so on. It has to be a well-planned preparatory programme to get us somewhere at the Rio 2016 Olympics,” Nhemachena said.

ZOC chief executive Anna Mguni said the Mighty Warriors’ qualification for the 2016 Rio Games is a welcome development and it shows progress in the sport.

“It’s a welcome development and sign of progress for the concerned national association. The challenge is to maintain the momentum, build on it and ensure that the growth of the sport is well planned and managed beyond 2016 and into future Games editions.

“The Mighty Warriors join Team Zimbabwe as one of the disciplines that has attained qualification to participate in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games. As with the individual disciplines athletes qualified to date, preparation plans and budgets are being finalised, more so now that planning must include a team sport.

“The support towards this preparation and indeed the qualification of other athletes and teams does not become the sole responsibility of ZOC, Team Zimbabwe is a national team and to this end the support will be sourced on a national level,” said Mguni