Story by Lawrence Trusida, Sports Editor
THE 2023 Confederation of African Volleyball Zone IV championship which was expected to start this Tuesday in Harare has been cancelled.
The 10-team tournament has been called off after teams withdrew, citing a lack of financial support.
The senior men and women indoor championship saw only Eswatini confirming their participation, forcing the organisers to cancel the event.
“The Zone is made up of ten countries in the Southern region of Africa and of those 10, only four had confirmed participation but as we drew closer, they also pulled out citing financial constraints leaving only Eswatini as the confirmed participant forcing the regional organising committee to cancel the championship,” said Confederation of African Volleyball Zone IV secretary general, Ringisai Mapondera.
The Regional Organising Committee is now grappling to revive the tournament that is dying a natural death after the last volleyball championship was held in 2017.
“We are looking at ways to remedy this, it is very unfortunate that it has come to this but as a zone, we are trying to find ways to make sure the six aside version of volleyball is resuscitated,” said Mapondera.
The turn of events comes as a huge disappointment to Zimbabwe who had already named the participating teams after a week-long training camp.
