THE Zimbabwe Under-21 men and women hockey teams have stepped up preparations for this year’s edition of the Junior Africa Cup which runs from November 30 to December 8 in Windhoek, Namibia.
Featuring Africa’s top hockey nations, the event will act as a qualifier for the 2025 Hockey Junior World Cup, with the top three teams in the men’s and women’s competitions grabbing a ticket to rub shoulders with the best in the world.
The host nation for the World Cup and dates are yet to be announced.
Zimbabwe’s junior women’s team will be looking to qualify for a fourth consecutive World Cup appearance and sixth overall, while their male counterparts have failed to make it since 1985.
The women’s team finished second at the Junior Africa Cup to South Africa in Egypt last year and will be looking to go one better this time around
“The preparations have been a little slow because we were waiting for the announcement of the dates and venue for the Junior Africa Cup, we selected a squad last week and we are ramping up our training sessions,” Under-21 women’s team coach Brad Heur told NewsDay Sport.
“We still have a good number of girls who were part of the team that travelled to Chile for the World Cup last year, so we are hoping to continue with all that momentum to improve and do even better at the upcoming Junior Africa Cup.
“This tournament is important for Zimbabwe hockey and Zimbabwe as a whole because it is a massive opportunity for us to get our name out there and prove that Zimbabwe is truly a great sporting nation and we can compete with bigger countries.”
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Zimbabwe will have to contend with South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Swaziland and the hosts Namibia for a ticket to the World Cup.
Hockey Association of Zimbabwe has also stepped up the drive to raise funds to enable the junior hockey teams to travel to the continental championships.
