The teams qualified to represent Africa at the World Cup after winning both the regional and the African Championships held earlier this year. The Under-23 side was set to participate in Poland this weekend, the Under-21 women’s team qualified to play in Croatia in a fortnight and the women’s Under-19s were supposed to leave for Portugal for a tournament slated for the end of June.
Initially, the trips were supposed to be funded by the Confederation of African Volleyball, but ZBVA Vice President, Chris Chivinge, said the continental body recently wrote to them saying they should make their own way.
“This has thrown a big challenge our way because we had mobilised resources for only the regional and continental phases. All along, we had believed that the continental body would fund us for the World Cup finals,” said Chivinge.
The estimated overall cost of the trips is $40,000. Chivinge said it would be very unfair to the players should any of the teams fail to travel, having gone so far in preparations.
With beach volleyball having been accorded Olympics status, Zimbabwe had shown that they had the ability to win a medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. He called for more support, especially in events like the World Cup, where they would assess their strengths and weaknesses against the best in the world.
Initially, Zimbabwe had six teams at the Africa Zone Six qualifiers, two of which fell at regional level, while the third lost out at the African qualifiers. Last year, the Zimbabwe Under 16 women’s basketball team failed to travel for the African championships in Egypt, having won the regional competition.
In the process, they missed the opportunity to play at the World Championships as the Africa Championships also served as the world championship qualifiers.
Post published in: Sport