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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe netball team for the African Union Sports Council Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games are confident of going all the way to the final and win the ultimate prize.

Zimbabwe will battle it out with four other countries, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland at White City Stadium. Netball competition gets rolling on December 6 but the Zimbabwean girls are on a bye, getting to the courts the following day against Botswana at 9AM.

“A lot of ground work has been done, starting in April as part of our preparations for these Games. In August we had our team competing in the Zimbabwe National Youth Games which were in Masvingo so we are very confident and are going all out for gold,” said team manager Virginia Mutanda.

The girls are in camp at Bulawayo Polytechnic together with the rest the Team Zimbabwe squad for the Games.

They are having daily training sessions at Eveline High School with coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki expressing satisfaction with their response to the drills.

“So far everything is going on well, the girls are responding. We expect the rest of the squad members to be in camp after their examinations next week,” he said.

Mutsauki described the conditions at the Bulawayo Polytechnic as fine.

“So far so good in terms of our camping conditions, we have no complaints,” said Mutsauki.

 

Netball squad

Officials: Rumbidzai Virginia Mutanda( manager),

Ropafadzo Mutsauki (head coach), Simbarashe Mlambo (coach)

Players: Junior Ncube, Sthembile Chitiva, Felistus Kwangwa, Tanyaradzwa Sharon Bwanali, Sicinile Sanele Ncube, Fellistus Mercy Mukwadi, Confidence Chido Chiwenga, Nyasha Kakono, Taslima Mbimba, Nomagugu Makhalima, Monalisa Chigora, Patricia Mauladi

Netball Fixtures:

Dec 6: Botswana v South Africa (White City, 9AM), Namibia v Swaziland (White City 2PM)

Zimbabwe on bye

Dec 7: Botswana v Zimbabwe (White City, 9AM), South Africa v Swaziland (White City, 11AM)

Namibia on bye

Dec 8: Botswana v Namibia (White City, 9AM), Swaziland v Zimbabwe (White City, 11AM), South Africa v Namibia (White City, 1PM),

Dec 9: South Africa v Zimbabwe (White City, 9AM), Botswana v Swaziland (White City, 11AM), Zimbabwe v Namibia (White City 1PM)

Dec 10: Bronze medal match, Position three v Position four (White City, 9AM), Gold medal match, Position one v Position two ( White City, 11AM)