Zim teams for Partille Cup SWEDEN-BOUND . . . Alphios Magiya, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Handball Federation, has confirmed that five teams will represent the country at the Partille Cup next month
SWEDEN-BOUND . . .  Alphios Magiya, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Handball Federation, has confirmed that five teams will represent the country at the Partille Cup next month

SWEDEN-BOUND . . . Alphios Magiya, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Handball Federation, has confirmed that five teams will represent the country at the Partille Cup next month

Collin Matiza Sports Editor
FIVE Zimbabwean junior teams have been officially accepted to take part in the largest youth handball tournament in the world – the Partille Cup – in Gothenburg, Sweden, this year.
The Partille Cup, started by Swedish handball club IK Sävehof, is the world’s largest annual tournament in handball in terms of the number of participants.
The tournament is played annually  during one week in July by young people in the ages between 10 and 21 years old.

Zimbabwe have been taking part in this tournament for the past four years and this year, the Zimbabwe Handball Federation have picked five teams which were recently officially accepted to take part in the 2014 Partille Cup that is set to run from June 30 to July 5 in Gothenburg.

In fact, from June 30 to July 5, the Partille Cup will be played for the 45th consecutive year. Last year’s tournament was the biggest ever with 1 120 teams and over 20 000 participants from 44 nations, including Zimbabwe.

And this summer in Gothenburg there will once again be a fantastic handball tournament when the city welcomes over 1 000 teams from 44 different nations, including Zimbabwe, who will take part in the Partille Cup which has always been the largest and most important international youth event for handball.

According to the official list of the teams that will take part in this year’s Partille Cup, which was released in Gothenburg at the weekend by the organisers of this big international tournament, Zimbabwe will have two national teams who will be fighting for the top honours in the boys Under-18 and the girls Under-16 age-groups respectively.

The two national teams will be joined in Gothenburg by a girls Under-16 team from Harare’s Girls High School and two sides from Mashonaland West Province who will play under the name Mashrhino at this tournament.

At this year’s Partille Cup, Mashrhino will participate in the boys Under-14 and girls Under-13 sections.
Alphios Magiya, the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Handball Federation, said yesterday they have picked a girls Under-18 select side that will also represent the country at this year’s Partille Cup.

“We had initially invited a girls Under-18 team from Harare’s Mufakose 4 High School to take part in this year’s Partille Cup but they failed to raise enough funds for the airfares of their players and we decided to replace them with a select side made up of some talented young players drawn from Harare, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central and Masvingo.

“This team of 11 players will play in the girls Under-18 section at the Partille Cup,” Magiya said.
The ZHF chief also said they were looking at taking a delegation of 109 players and officials to this year’s Partille Cup.

“The first batch is expected to leave Harare for Sweden on June 26 and it will be made up of Harare’s Girls High School’s Under-16 team and our girls Under-16 national team and they will both first take part in an Olympic Solidarity Training Camp that will be held in Gothenburg prior to the start of the Partille Cup,” Magiya said.

The Olympic Solidarity Camp is designed for developing countries in handball and the event is organised by the European Handball Federation, the International Handball Federation and the International Olympic Committee.

“The second batch of Zimbabwean players and officials will leave for Sweden on June 28 and will be followed there by the two Mashrhino sides the following day. So, I can safely say that all is now in place for all our representative sides to travel to Sweden for this year’s Partille Cup.

“We are now finalising the visa applications for the whole delegation. In fact, we’ve done 30 percent of the visa applications and we are left with about 70 percent which I’m quite sure will be done by the end of this coming week.

“This trip has been mainly sponsored by the parents of the players who were picked to take part in this year’s Partille Cup . . . We (unfortunately) didn’t receive any support from the corporate world,” Magiya said.

But the ZHF leadership must be commended for being able to once again send teams to the Partille Cup without any financial support from the corporate world after having done the same last year when they sent a big delegation of 120 players and officials to the same tournament.

And the Zimbabwean flag will be among the 44 nations that have entered teams for this year’s Partille Cup.
Heden, in central Gothenburg, is the tournament’s heart with 30 fields.

Additional playing field areas are Kviberg, Valhalla and Överåsvallen. In total, over 60 fields will be used and over 4 000 games are played at this year’s tournament.
The tournament is played outdoors on artificial grass but the A finals will be played indoors at the Scandinavium Arena and Valhalla Sportshall.

In addition to the games, there are several peripheral activities for the participants.

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