Story by Raynald Ngwarati
THE Zimbabwe Under 18 girl’s handball team settled for silver at the 2025 International Handball Federation Zone VI games after losing 22-30 to Zambia this Saturday.
The team narrowly missed out on a ticket to the IHF continental championships after falling prey to neighbours Zambia in an action-packed match played at Chitungwiza’s Aquatic Complex.
The hosts who had outclassed South Africa 33-27 on Friday found a tougher task against the Zambians who put on a show to clinch the sole ticket to the Under 18s continental finals.
Playing in front of their home crowd, the Zimbabwe Under 18 girls tried every trick in their book to upset the Zambian side, but yet again, they were victims to a recurrence of history.
Playing against the ZONE VI powerhouses was expected not to be an easy task for Zimbabwe considering Zambia’s recent dominance across the men and women’s categories, however there was optimism within the camp that odds could be beaten.
The optimism saw the young Zimbabwean girls going toe-to-toe with the Zambians, but the valiant fight could not yield the much-needed dance on the continental stage as Zambia powered to a 22-30 victory.
In the third-place playoff, South Africa were too powerful for Eswatini mauling them 37-4 to clinch the bronze medal.
Eswatini were restricted from scoring as the South African Under 18 ladies put on a dominance performance to show why they are part of the Zone VI’s top seeds.
