Club volleyball championships moved to Botswana

Sport
REGION V Sports Development Volleyball Club Championships that had been set for Swaziland from December 14-22 have been moved to Botswana on the same dates

THE REGION V Sports Development Volleyball Club Championships that had been set for Swaziland from December 14-22 have been moved to Botswana on the same dates.

SUKOLUHLE MTHETHWA SPORTS REPORTER

ZRP Raiders, University of Zimbabwe and Support Unit will represent the country in the women’s category while Black Rhinos, Stanbic Thunder and Support Unit would be the men’s teams set to battle for supremacy in the annual competition.

Zimbabwe Volleyball Association (ZVA) administrator Sibangani Mashasha confirmed the development to Southern Eye Sport yesterday.

“We just received communication from Swaziland saying they could not host the games due to unforeseen circumstances.

“We are yet to ascertain the real reason because we are waiting for ZVA president Frederick Ndlovu who is out of the country.

“However, all the teams are preparing for the games even though the venue has been changed.

“We expect the teams to bring medals back home.

“We are hoping that both the men and women’s teams will get medals,” he said.

The national association recently indicated that they were hoping that the Zimbabwe teams would emulate Jewels men’s team as they were the last local team to win the competition.

Support Unit and Stanbic Thunder will be back again in this year’s competition after also gracing last year’s competition that was held in Zambia while Railstars are not in this year’s competition.

Panthers and Highlanders represented the country in the women’s competition in Zambia last year.

Zambia, Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi and the hosts are the countries which usually take part in the games.

ZRP Raiders (women) and Support Unit (men) automatically qualified for winning last year’s ZVA national league while Black Rhinos (men) and University of Zimbabwe (women) got the second slots respectively after emerging winners of the Zimbabwe Open Volleyball tournament earlier this year.

Stanbic Thunder (men) and Support Unit (women) won the third slots to take part in this year’s competition after coming first in the national play-offs that were held in Harare in September.

Teams will be expected to raise their own funds for the trip to Botswana.