THE Zimbabwe national netball team’s technical team is happy with the fitness levels of the players in camp ahead of next month’s Vitality Netball World Cup.
The Gems have been in camp for the past two weeks preparing for the global netball showpiece that will start from July 28 to August 6 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Giving an update of the team’s preparations on NetZim, Gems’ assistant coach Tatenda Shinya said he was impressed with the national team players’ attitude during training. Shinya said the gems will be heading to South Africa to compete and not just add up numbers at the tournament.“So far so good, our fitness levels seem to be equally good.
When it comes to tactics, our team is doing what we want them to do. We’ve worked so hard to build attacking combinations and so far, we’ve played boys teams six times and managed to win all the games. It shows the positive side that we’ve been doing.“We’re not going there just to participate, but are going there to compete for the cup.
Our aim is to win all our group games. We’re working tirelessly to bring the best out of the girls we have,” Shinya said. Zimbabwe will be competing at the Netball World Cup for the second time on the trot, having finished on position eight at the 2019 edition that was held in Liverpool, England. Zimbabwe have been drawn in Pool A with Australia, Fiji and Tonga.
Pool B is made up of England, Malawi, Scotland and Barbados while Jamaica, South Africa, Wales and Sri Lanka are in Pool C.Pool D has New Zealand, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago and Singapore.
Meanwhile, Shinya said the foreign-based players, captain Felisitus Kwangwa who plays in England, Australia-based pair of Joice Takaidza and Nalani Makunde will join camp two weeks before the start of the competition.
Zimbabwe is expected to leave for South Africa on July 20.
Shinya said they sent a training programme for the trio and is confident that they will easily adapt to the team’s training methods in the two weeks they will spend in camp.
“We’re left with foreign-based players to join us in camp. I’m sure they’re working hard because we gave them training programs to follow. When they come it will be team bonding and combinations, two weeks is enough to do that,” Shinya said.
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