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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
LOCAL handball is expected to resume competition on Saturday with a number of matches lined up for the weekend after the Zimbabwe Handball Federation and their members agreed to start their programme at provincial level.

ZHF technical director Farai Gwisai said following their meeting with clubs a few weeks back, they have grouped the provinces to compete at a regional level as competition slowly returns.

“The meeting was a success. It was on resumption since (the outbreak of) Covid-19. We were planning how we were going to be playing as handball because we received communication from SRC saying it will be wise if we resume with national league.

“But we had to meet with our clubs, ideally we agreed to start with provincial leagues, twinning the provinces. Mashonaland West and Midlands form Central Region, Harare Metropolitan, Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East form the Northern Region.

“Bulawayo, Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North will make the Southern Region, and Masvingo and Manicaland the Eastern Region.
“They are starting this weekend,” said Gwisai.

However, he said they are still waiting for the Northern Region to confirm when they are starting. The games will be played in a tournament format and will culminate into a mini-national league in October.

“We are going to have the top four going into the mini-national league to be played around October. We have got a minimum of six clubs per region. Most of them that are starting now, are community clubs but Polytechnics and Universities will be starting soon as well.

“At the moment clubs had started training because they had been cleared as individual clubs,” said Gwisai.
However, he pointed out their main challenge is resources.

“The challenge we have is resources, their (clubs) sponsors to fund their transport, they are struggling but they are getting there,” said Gwisai.

The national association is also looking at launching beach handball this year and expectations were that they start with coaching courses this month. However, Gwisai said they are now hoping to start the courses next month.