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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe national sevens team has welcomed postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, saying this will give them more time to harness resources needed for them to compete in the qualifiers.

Before the global lockdown caused by the pandemic, Zimbabwe were scheduled to play in the final Olympic qualifying tournament in France in June.

Zimbabwe, Uganda, China, Hong Kong, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Samoa, Tonga, Brazil, Chile and France were to converge for the repechage tournament that was billed for Biarritz from June 20-21. The winner would have secured a ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The final qualifiers have now been postponed indefinitely, with the Cheetahs eagerly waiting for new dates.

“The fact that the Olympics have been moved back is a blessing in disguise for us as we now have the time to regroup before the final repechage round of games. We can now pool our resources together and get the team into camp much earlier and hopefully have enough preparation time,” said Simba Dangah, national sevens assistant manager.

“We also hope that by the time activities resume, we will be able to get a couple of tournaments so that we get our team’s aptitude to a level we want them to be at going into the repechage home stretch.”

The Cheetahs technical team gave players personal training programmes to follow during the lockdown.

Dangah said they are also discussing game plays, patterns and making simulations to keep the “vibe alive” between the technical team and players.

“While we encourage individual training and also monitoring players’ trainings online through social media platforms, we’re emphasising the need to stay  safe,” Dangah said.

In February, the Cheetahs finished eighth behind Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, Chile, Uruguay, Tonga and Uganda in the World Challenger Series.

National team coach Gilbert Nyamutsamba spoke about the need to keep players active to enhance Cheetahs’ chances of qualifying for the Olympics.

He noted that most second-tier teams invested heavily in their sevens rugby programmes through well-funded leagues as well as having periodic high performance camps, a development that Zimbabwe needs to emulate.

Nyamutsamba suggested that high performance camps be held in the build-up to the Olympic qualifiers.

The Cheetahs technical team was also hoping to have a sevens league running concurrently with the Super Six League. — @ZililoR.