ZIMBABWE men’s volleyball team failed to progress to the Africa World Cup Championship qualifiers after losing 1-3 to Botswana in the Zone V1 World Championships qualifiers in Botswana on Saturday.
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The men’s team had started on a good note coming from behind to beat Lesotho 3-2 on Tuesday before getting the better of Namibia 3-0.
On Thursday, they lost 0-3 to Zambia, beat Mozambique 3-1 on Friday before losing to the hosts on Saturday.
Zimbabwe Volleyball Association secretary-general Ringisai Mapondera yesterday told Southern Eye Sport that the team was now out of the competition.
“Botswana were on top with 14 points. We were tied on eight points with Lesotho and Zambia. We lost to Zambia because of set quotient. We needed to win two sets, but we won one when we played Botswana,” he said.
Zimbabwe won the first set 25-21 before losing 21-25, 14-25 and 19-25 in the last set against Botswana.
The result saw Botswana and Zambia qualifying for the next stage — the Africa World Championship qualifiers to be held in Egypt next month — as teams battle for the finals to be held in Poland next year.
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Mapondera blamed the defeat on poor preparations.
“The team only had a day to train. We don’t have resources to send our teams for longer periods in camp. We also failed to bring one player, Murraypole Ndlovu, because we could not raise airfares. If you look at countries like Botswana, they get assistance from the government. They can even go to countries like Cuba just to train there, but for us it is difficult,” he said.
Meanwhile, the women’s team as expected to go into camp in Harare on Wednesday for the Zone V1 world championships qualifiers which begin in Zambia on Sunday.