Sports Reporter
AFTER boycotting training for two days this week over unpaid allowances and bonuses, the Mighty Warriors resumed their preparations yesterday for the Africa Women Cup of Nations tie against Tanzania. Zimbabwe hosts Tanzania next Sunday in the return leg of the first round of the qualifiers. However, the senior women team lost two days of their training as the players demanded their outstanding bonuses from the match against Cameroon last year in October as well as last weekend’s game against Tanzania.

On Thursday ZIFA chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze, had a meeting with the technical team where he acknowledged that they owe the team but said they should continue training while the administrators do their job in terms of looking for the money.

ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa is also said to have addressed the players on the same day, which might have led the girls to their decision to go back to training. Mighty Warriors assistant coach Sithethelelwe Sibanda said they were relieved the players were back at train- ing.

“Yes they have resumed training. We went to the gym in the morning and then trained at the (ZIFA) Village in the afternoon. “No coach really wants to have such scenarios in camp. If that happens then we will have to deal with the issue. I am happy that at least we didn’t lose many days.

“The girls came back to training, showed some patience and the commitment was there.

“We could say yes we didn’t want to lose those two days but we can’t give an excuse to say those two days will affect our performance.

“We are training come Sunday we will be ready for the game. During the training session we did today (yesterday) the morale was just high. I don’t really know what happened but sometimes the decision we make in life, we sleep over them and we just get back to ourselves. Maybe they looked at the bigger picture,” said Sibanda.

The winner from next week’s tie will progress to the last qualifying round of the qualifiers where they will meet either Zambia or Tanzania.

Apart from the African qualifiers, the Mighty Warriors will be making their maiden appearance at the Olympics scheduled for Rio de Janeiro in August. They are using the ongoing camp and the continental qualifiers as part of their preparations as well.

And this week’s events leaves a lot to be desired considering the assignments lying ahead.

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