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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter 

ZIMBABWEAN rugby referee Precious Pazani’s stock continues to rise as she is set to officiate at HSBC Cape Town Sevens in South Africa which gets underway on Friday. 

Pazani is fresh from officiating at the Dubai Sevens International series last week. 

This year alone, the 32-year-old Pazani has taken charge of a number of high profile matches. 

She became the first Zimbabwean rugby referee to officiate at the World Cup after her participation at the Rugby World Cup Sevens, which was held in Cape Town, South Africa in September.

She has also been to the Women’s Six Nations Championship, men’s Under-20 Six Nations Championship and the 2022 men’s Rugby Africa Cup. 

The stopover in Cape Town will be the third in the 2022/23 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, with the opening tournaments taking place in Hong Kong (November 4-6) and Dubai (December 2-3).

Precious Pazani

The tournament consists of 16 men’s and 12 women’s teams, playing in pools, with the top teams progressing to the Cup quarter-finals and the bottom teams playing out for lower positions in the next round. Every match is crucial, as World Series points are up for grabs.

The final tournament points are determined on overall log position (for a specific tournament), and at the end of all the tournaments across the globe, those points are added up to determine the overall World Series winner and subsequent placings.

During the December tournament in Cape Town, teams are traditionally at their most competitive, as the squads would have trained and played together for more than a month, have the benefit of two tournaments to mould and gel and generally inspired by the awesome support of the South African and traveling fans.

Precious Pazani in action

Pazani has meanwhile been congratulated by the Zimbabwe Rugby Referees Society for shaving off 15 seconds on her Bronco Test as she prepares to officiate at the Cape Town Sevens. 

The Bronco Test is a hard-aerobic running assessment where participants have to complete a sequence of shuttle runs over — 60m, 40m and 20m for five sets. — @innocentskizoe