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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter
AS the year 2019 draws to its completion, the sport sector has met with a lot of mixed fortunes on the sporting arena. And today The Herald looks at some of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly scenes of the 2019 season.

THE GOOD

Gems qualification for the Vitality World Cup

Amid the gloomy results in team sports, the women’s netball team — the Gems — shone brightly for Zimbabwe with decent performances at the Vitality Netball World Cup in Liverpool, England, in June.

Never mind the shoddy preparations, the Gems still caught the eye of the whole world with their brave and confident performances in their group which also comprised giants Australia. It was hard to believe it was their debut participation at a World Cup event.

They managed three wins against Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland and Barbados, which saw them coming eighth overall.

And for a sport that has previously suffered neglect and lack of financial support, the Netball World Cup participation definitely opened the floodgates with several sponsors finally seeing the light in the women’s game.

Recently Glow Petroleum gave a huge seal of approval when they announced a hefty $11 million sponsorship for one of the local leagues, the Rainbow Amateur Netball League.

 Muripo wins world title

Zimbabwe’s top karateka Samson Muripo has never disappointed each time he represents the country at the international tournament. This year he scooped gold medal at the sixth Kyokushin Karate World Cup in Moscow, Russia.

Records show that Muripo is the first African to win a world title at the Kyokushin Karate World Cup in 2009, Japan.

He won silver in 2011 in the middleweight category and in 2017 the karate master was crowned world champion at the 3rd International So-Kyokushin Karate Tournament in Ahvaz, Iran.

He was back on the podium again as world champion this year after winning the Veterans Open section in Russia where 30 countries were represented.

Muripo, who lost his father while on national duty in Russia, was given to a hero’s welcome upon his return home.

Nakamba makes English Premier League grade

From the humble beginnings in Hwange, 24-year-old Marvelous Nakamba penned the most inspiring success story by any Zimbabwean this year.

The Warriors midfielder smashed the headlines after his £11 million deal to join English Premiership football side Aston Villa sailed through. The move from Belgium, where he played for modest side Club Brugge, was one of the biggest breakthrough stories by any Zimbabwean football player in a decade.

Nakamba, who earns a cool £55 000 a week, has done his best to justify his signing as he has been putting up some formidable performances for his new side which earned him a couple of Man of the Match accolades.

Nyasha buys new bus for CAPS United

One of the best feel good stories in domestic football should be Nyasha Mushekwi’s gesture to splash US$120 000 on specially-customised 45-seater coach for his old club CAPS United as a token of appreciation for the role the Green Machine played in his career.

There were tears and a lot of emotions when the bus was unveiled to the Makepekepe family earlier this month. The bus was a big relief for the Harare giants, who had always faced inconveniences travelling long distances on their 30-seater mini-bus for Premiership matches.

Mushekwi himself was not present at the launch but it is not every day that a player would demonstrate such a kind gesture and even going the extra mile to ensure its safe delivery by following up to settle the required tax levies demanded by ZIMRA.

Donata Katai sets new junior swimming national record

Zimbabwean swimming sensation Donata Katai introduced herself on the scene in the best way possible this year by breaking the long-standing national record held by iconic Olympic gold medallist Kirsty Coventry, who is now the Minister of Sport.

Katai, who is probably set to be the best athlete ever in the Zimbabwean swimming pools after Coventry, also won two gold medals at the CANA Junior African Swimming Championships in Tunisia.

In March this year, the 15-year-old Gateway High School pupil broke Coventry’s 100m backstroke in the South African National Junior Championships in Durban, South Africa, winning gold in the process.

FC Platinum treble

FC Platinum wrote their own excellent piece of history by winning their third Castle Lager Premiership football title on the bounce this year, becoming only the third team to do so after giants Dynamos and Highlanders.

The Zvishavane-based platinum miners continued to relegate the traditional giants to the peripheries in a demonstration of the growing shift of power from the Big Three — Dynamos, Highlanders and CAPS United.

FC Platinum are leading a domestic football revolution by the more stable the corporate owned teams. This year four corporate owned teams dominated the top five where third-placed CAPS United where sandwiched by FC Platinum, Chicken Inn and Manica Diamonds.

Manyuchi a world champion again

Former WBC World welterweight silver champion Charles Manyuchi showed he was not a spent force yet when he bounced back to the top by winning the World Boxing Federation middleweight title after a third round knock-out of Argentine opponent Diego Gallardo.

The success made him the first Zimbabwean to win a world boxing title. Manyuchi needed to redeem himself following the embarrassing knock-out by Uzbekistani boxer Quadratillo Abduqaxarov two years ago.

Zimbabwe stages FIM Africa Motocross of African Nations Championships

Donnybrook Park in Harare hosted one of Africa’s biggest motorcycling events this year when the top junior and senior riders from seven countries converged in Zimbabwe for the FIM Africa Motocross of African Nations Championships.

The event attracted a record of more than 200 participants across the categories. Participants came all the way from Morocco, Uganda, Zambia, Botswana, Kenya and South Africa, who emerged as the overall winners at the two-day motorcycling event which saw a record crowd of over 10 000 thronging Donnybrook to watch the final day of action on September 1.

THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Warriors AFCON debacle

The Zimbabwe football team built high expectations when they qualified for their fourth AFCON final appearance in Egypt but the outing turned out to be a huge nightmare on and off the pitch.

The tournament was doomed from the start. ZIFA appeared ill-prepared for the event despite the team having had confirmed their qualification months back.

Government learnt at the last minute that there was no money to take the boys to Egypt despite an advance payout made by CAF to all participating teams.

Last minute fund-raising efforts managed to raise some funds but there were always endless fights in the Warriors camp between the players and the management at ZIFA over payments and the contracts.

The players threatened to boycott the opening match against Egypt, which in itself could have been disastrous and a huge dent to the tournament.

The players managed to fulfil the fixtures but results were disastrous as they finished bottom of the group and for the umpteenth time Zimbabwe failed to progress from the group stage. The Sports Commission later instituted a commission of inquiry over the disastrous campaign, as there were also accusations of misuse of funds.

Zimbabwe Cricket, Sports Commission bickering, Zimbabwe banned from ICC

The country experienced one of it’s most depressing episodes in sport this year when the International Cricket Council announced they had suspended Zimbabwe Cricket’s membership following a boardroom bickering between the association’s leadership and the Sports Commission.

The ICC withdrew Zimbabwe’s membership and froze funding following what they termed “government interference” in the running of cricket.

The move by ICC was drastic and it followed the suspension of the ZC leadership by the Sports Commission over a raft of charges that included electoral irregularities and financial mismanagement.

The players and officials bore the brunt of the dispute after the men’s and women’s sides were eliminated from next year’s T20 World Cup. Officials like Langton Rusere and the women’s coach Adam Chifo were also denied participation at international assignments. The good news, however, is that ZC and Sports Commission finally managed to find each other and Zimbabwe were reinstated with full rights.

Zimbabwe Netball Association, Rainbow Amateur Netball League perennial tiff

Despite the positive story about Zimbabwe having qualified for the Netball World Cup for the first time this year, the tiff between the Zimbabwe Netball Association and the splinter Rainbow Amateur Netball League appeared to undo all the positive headlines.

ZINA, led by the clueless Leticia Chipandu executive, apparently refused to recognise RANL and the boardroom wars almost scuttled the national team’s preparations for the Netball World Cup.

There was noise when ZINA threatened to disqualify players from the splinter RANL league for World Cup selection. RANL apparently enjoys better sponsorship and has the best players. The divisions are still playing out despite a directive by the Sports Commission to bring the feuding parties together.

Mighty Warriors failure to fulfil home fixture

The Zimbabwe women’s football team made a very embarrassing gaffe when they boycotted their own home match against Zambia towards the end of August.

The Mighty Warriors plunged to a new low when the team failed to appear at their own home match where they were meant to host Zambia in a Tokyo 2020 Olympics qualifier at the National Sports Stadium.

The Mighty Warriors were trailing 0-5 following their first leg destruction by Shepolopolo the previous week and needed a miracle to progress to the next stage of the qualifiers.

But the home side failed to raise a team to complete the fixture after domestic league sides withdrew their players over non-payment of appearance fees and bonuses to their players by ZIFA.

Only the match officials and Zambia players took on to the pitch at the giant stadium.

Zimbabwe stadia condemned by CAF

Football made all the wrong headlines and the story of poor infrastructure capped a disappointing year after the National Sports Stadium was banned for international matches by the Confederation of African Football. The giant stadium, which has failed inspection tests several times in the last two years was closed down for international assignment as CAF felt it was not up to standard.

Mandava in Zvishavane also failed the CAF inspection test. Zimbabwe faced a stadia crisis in 2019 as most of the grounds like Rufaro, Ascot, Vengere and Trojan also failed local inspections at the beginning of the season.

CAF warned that Zimbabwe could be forced to play their home matches in neighbouring countries next year if the authorities do not attend to infrastructure.