The Sunday News
Mandla Ncube, Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Water Polo team is gearing up for the Continental Association of National Associations (Cana) Zone 4 Championships, which will also serve as African Youth World Qualifiers to take place from Thursday to Saturday at Hellenic Academy in Harare.
Zimbabwe will entertain six South African Water Polo teams in various age groups which will include the Under-14 boys and girls, Under-16 boys and girls and Under-18 boys and girls.
With only a few days left before the start of the championships, Water Polo board secretary, Sarah Hoal said preparations were at an advanced stage.
“We have held site meetings with all the departments involved with transport, catering, security, equipment hires and everything is well on line but still lots of details to tie up, our foreign referees arrive on Tuesday and South African teams arrive on Wednesday,” Hoal said.
With the competition being the first competitive piece of action for the Zimbabwean team, Hoal remains confident of a good showing from the youngsters with most players having spent a large part of December on tour and the schools water polo season just ended.
With the Under-18 team competing in the African Youth World Qualifiers for a spot in the World Youth Championships scheduled for later this year, Hoal is hoping that the country’s engagement with the South Africans will leave Zimbabwe with something to treasure beyond the competition. Zimbabwe has been fine tuning for the past three weeks while Bulawayo-based players were expected to join the rest of the squad yesterday for the final push of preparations.
