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HISTORY was made at the weekend when Mashrhino, a handball select side from Mashonaland West, became the first team from Africa to compete in the Hanse Cup tournament in Hamburg, Germany.

The Hanse Cup is an annual junior handball tournament which has mainly been restricted to club sides from Germany and fellow European Union countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands and France.

The tournament is mainly designed for junior players from the Under-15 to Under-17 age-groups for both boys and girls and is organised annually by one of Germany’s top handball clubs TSG Bergedorf, which is based at Bergedorf in Hamburg, in conjunction with the Hamburger Handball Association. TSG Bergedorf broke with tradition when they, for the first time since the inception of the Hanse Cup more than a decade ago, invited a team from Africa, Mashrhino, a select side picked by the Mashonaland West Handball Association in Zimbabwe, to take part in this year’s two-day tournament held over this past weekend in Hamburg.

The tournament’s matches were played at eight different indoor venues in Bergedorf. Mashrhino’s participation in this year’s Hanse Cup was facilitated by the GeBe Foundation of Germany, a non-profit organisation, which has some sporting links with a number of German sport associations and has a branch in Cape Town, South Africa.

More than 500 boys and girls Under-15 and 17 players drawn from over 50 handball clubs from Denmark, France, The Netherlands and the host nation Germany all converged in Bergedorf at the weekend to take part in this annual event, which is one of the biggest youth handball tournaments in Europe.

And this year a team of seven boys and four girls drawn from several schools in Mashonaland West made the long trip where they formed the Mashrhino select side who wrote their own piece of history.

The 11 history-making players in this team are Ryan Munaki, Tanatswa Dzotizeyi, Runyararo Tizora (all from Kutama College in Zvimba), Nathaniel Moyo, Makhosi Mugoba, Tawedzerwa Mada, Siwellogyn Gwembere, Anastancia Manuwere (all from Conway College in Mount Hampden), Winnie Machipisa (Martindale Primary School in Chegutu), Charmaine Gororo (Sanyati Baptist High School) and Anesu Bonomali (Chegutu).

They first went down 8-16 to SV Einheit 1875 before they played gallantly in their next match against TV Mascherode from the German city of Hanover, who narrowly beat them 20-15. In their last match of the day on Saturday evening, the visibly tired Mashrhino boys Under-17 side went down 6-13 to Denmark’s Norre Djurs HK but by that time they had already won the hearts of many neutrals at this tournament who cheered them on all the way from the first game of this event.

Mashonaland swimmers hailed – The Herald

Mashonaland swimmers showed a great performance at a regional level one championship gala recently held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The young squad came 10th out of 70 countries which took part in the gala.

Mashonaland sent 11 swimmers to the event.

The 11 swimmers who flew the Mashonaland flag high, are now taking the winter swimming break and will be back in the waters in August ready for the new season

They walked away with three gold medals, four silver medals and five bronze medals. Each of our swimmers managed to swim in at least a final, meaning that at some point of the competition each one was one of the top eight fastest swimmers in their age groups for a particular race.

The swimmers all managed to better their times, achieving some personal best times.

The team was captained by Vuyisile Mjimba and coached by Mairead Goncalves.

Team

Shania Bartosz, Tadiwa Bunhu, Regis Chimombe, Tanatsirwa Chitsurura, Stanley Madziyire, Tanaka Magadzire, Makanaka Mawere, Benoni Nhekairo, Kundai Nyambawaro.