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Ellina Mhlanga
Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE will have to wait a little bit longer to host the International Handball Federation Trophy Zone Six tournament after they agreed with their regional counterparts to move the event to next year.

The competition was initially set for April but had to be indefinitely postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. However, as the situation appeared to be getting better and lockdown measures being relaxed, the Zimbabwe Handball Federation had hoped to host the event before the end of the year.

They had set provisional dates for December but after meeting with their regional counterparts recently, they saw it fit to shelve the event for this year.

ZHF had also just received approval from the Government to resume their activities and they are now likely to shift their focus to local programmes.

ZHF secretary-general, Edison Chirowodza, confirmed the postponement.

“Last week we had a meeting with our regional counterparts namely Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland; and we discovered that most of these countries they are still on lockdown, their borders are still closed. Also it was difficult for them to prepare to travel to the tournament before the end of this year.

“Zambia and Malawi they were ready to participate in the tournament but despite their interest, we also considered the rise of the issues of Covid-19 within the region. So the tournament has just been postponed to next year, it is not totally cancelled,” said Chirowodza.

The move also came after the postponement of the Africa Junior Championships and Youth Championships to next year. The two continental events were due in September but had been rescheduled for December.

The regional event was serving as a qualifier to those championships.

“Regarding the issue of the qualifiers for the continental games, they were also postponed to next year so basically this also necessitated that we should also postpone our zonal regional games to next year.

“So we will get more information as to the procedure and other ways of qualifying for the tournaments when maybe things normalise,” said Chirowodza.

Despite the setback, the national junior and youth teams that have been working towards participation in the regional event are going to continue with their programmes hoping the event eventually takes place next year.

The junior men’s captain Charles Munyanyi said they had put in a lot of work for the competition but are aware of the prevailing environment.

“As a team we were disappointed because we had worked hard during the lockdown period. We had pushed hard training so that our fitness remain at its peak. I don’t know what’s next but what we are hoping is for the IHF Trophy to come back

“We don’t blame anyone because the coronavirus is something that is affecting everyone,” said Munyanyi.

With the regional event off the radar for this year, the national junior side’s captain said staging local tournaments will help them to stay focused.

The team is also working towards ZHF’s Vision 2024, whereby the local handball motherbody is hoping they will be able to compete for a place at the Olympics.

Following the approval to resume their activities, the national federation is engaging its stakeholders in terms of their protocols and procedures that they need to follow before they start engaging in handball activities.

“So with that approval I am sure very soon we will be starting our physical trainings. It’s also an opportunity for us to start preparing women’s teams because we also look forward to have a women’s regional competition starting next year,” added Chirowodza.