Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Under-20 men's coach, Tafadzwa Madure, has conceded that they have a lot to cover ahead of their participation at the International Handball Federation Trophy Continental Phase Africa.
The junior men's team secured their ticket to the continental event expected to take place later this year when they won the IHF Challenge Trophy Zone VI in Harare.
Madure and his squad were scheduled to regroup in Harare today for their first periodic camp.
The camp has, however, been deferred to next week.
"We want to try and have something we had planned for.
"We had planned that we would have five days of training, then we would break for two weeks then we would check in again for five days up until we go," Madure said.
"So, we can have a periodic camp with a little bit of rest in between.
"For the first periodic camp, I think we are focusing mainly on improving the endurance and conditioning of our players because when we go to the continental championships, we are going to play against guys who play in Europe, who play this sport professionally.
"We need to have a lot of strength and conditioning of our players during this first periodic camp."
It will be Zimbabwe's second consecutive appearance at the continental phase having been to Congo last year.
They had won the Zone VI event when beating Zambia in the final and it was a repeat of the same scenario at this year's regional tournament.
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"I think we need to work hard. Some of the guys that we had during the last 2024 Zone VI Games thought maybe the championship would be the same level of competition as we are facing in Zone VI.
"But to us as the technical department, we once went to Congo-Brazzaville, and we learnt a lot. We saw the kind of competition on that side and it needs us to work extra hard for us to obtain a better result," said Madure.
They lost all their matches in the six-team tournament, in Congo.
The coach and his technical crew are looking at bringing in a few more players to join the team that competed in Zone VI. Madure said the move will help create competition within the squad and also address the issue of height, which has been a concern.
"What we also want, going forward, is to possibly rope in five or six players again so that they can join the camp and we can create competition so that we don't have players being relaxed and feel like we are the ones who made it for Tunisia, so we will just go.
"When we started selecting (the team), my main focus was selecting someone with good height and good physical structure.
"It's a work in progress and I think it's one of the things that we took away from Congo Brazzaville," Madure said.
Indications are that the continental competition is likely to be held from September 17 to 27 in Tunisia.
