The Sunday News
Dalphine Tagwireyi Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE failed to qualify for the 2015 World Cup in Sydney, Australia, when they crashed out at the African championship qualifiers held in Botswana.
Africa had three slots up for grabs for the world netball showcase as South Africa and Malawi had automatically qualified by virtue of being third and sixth on the International Federation of Netball Associations rankings.
The team found the going tough in Botswana losing their first match to the hosts 38-41, in the team’s first outing in a year.
On Tuesday Zimbabwe narrowly lost to African champions Uganda 42-43.
Zimbabwe netball boss Leticia Chipandu speaking from Botswana said although they lost to both Uganda and Botswana the women displayed a never-say-die attitude.
“We might have lost against Botswana but at least we put up a tough challenge against African champions Uganda and eventually lost by one point, the continent saw that we are capable of tackling any team hence we will continue fighting,’’ said Chipandu.
On Wednesday the team made a strong comeback when they played against Namibia, dominating the game, and subsequently beating their opponents 57-31. However, things proved too tough for them on Friday when losing to Zambia 46-42 to end their hopes of qualifying.
Chipandu said against Zambia the players lacked motivation and willpower.
“We needed to win the last game to stand a chance of gaining advantage to continue playing. However, this was our worst performance so far, unlike other games they didn’t put up a good fight and now we are out,” she said.
The team was scheduled to play four games in their qualifiers, and had they beaten Zambia they would have stood a chance of at least playing against other runner-ups and gain advantage in pursuit of landing one of the three slots for the World Cup.
However, they lost three games and only managed to win one which proved to be a futile effort.
