The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
THE Zone 6 Basketball Club Championships begin at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo today with victors set to qualify for the continental tourney.
A total of 12 clubs, eight male and four female are set to take part in the seven day event.
Countries that have confirmed participation are Angola, Malawi, Mozambique and hosts Zimbabwe.
The winner of the men and women’s competitions will qualify for the African Club Championships, whose women’s event is set for next month in Mozambique, with the men’s finals date yet to be released.
Fixtures were set to be announced following the technical meeting involving club and technical officials that was scheduled for last night. Local organising committee chairman, Sikhumbuzo Ndlovu said they were making finals preparations for the event with work on the courts and stands expected to have been completed by late yesterday while teams had also been expected to have all been in the city by last night.
“We are expecting the Mozambicans to arrive at midday while the Malawians should already be in the country and are making their way to Bulawayo while the Angolans arrived on Thursday with the ladies’ team from Mozambique having come on Friday.
“While Zambia had indicated they will be coming for the meeting that is not the case anymore.
“We are meeting at 9:30pm tonight (yesterday) and that is when we are going to come up with the fixtures list,” he said.
Regional basketball powerhouse, Angola have Primero de Augosto and Interclube in the men’s category with Interclube also taking part in the ladies competition.
Malawi, who will be making a maiden appearance at the regional club finals, have two men’s teams, Brave Hearts and Central Knights while in the women’s section the country is represented by Brave Hearts.
Mozambique’s men’s teams coming for the games are Ferroviario de Maputo and Ferroviario de Beira.
Bulawayo’s Lakers and Vixens from Harare will represent Zimbabwe in the women’s competitions, with Foxes and City Hornets of Harare taking part in the men’s section.
The top two winners from each section of the competition will head to the Fiba Africa Clubs Championships Cup where they will face other regional champions with winners from that tournament making it to the Fiba Club World Cup.
