SHEPOLOPOLO READIES FOR COSAFA

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 12:48:41 +0000

By Grace Chaile Lesoesta

The Shepolopolo yesterday kicked off preparations for the COSAFA women Championship to be held in Zimbabwe from September 13 to 24.

Shepolopolo coach Albert Kachinga said his players have to put in a lot of effort, perseverance and discipline to strongly compete at the COSAFA women championship next month.

Speaking in an interview after a training session at Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka yesterday, Kachinga said his objective was to take the team to the final.

He said the men’s teams have set a good precedence at the COSAFA tournament, therefore the lasses have to work hard to record positive results.

“A precedence has been set by the under-17 and under-20 boys who both won the COSAFA championships while the senior team finished as runners-up. So we have to really work hard because we are not looking for anything less than reaching the final,” he said.

He however said the technical bench had a lot of work to do to adequately prepare the girls for the task.

“We have three weeks in which to prepare and from this first training session, I can see that there is a lot that needed to be done to get the girls to acceptable standards,” he said.

Kachinga said he has cast the net wider to create stiff competition in camp.

He told Journalists that he had mixed experienced and new players to solidify the team.

The COSAFA nations that have entered the championship are Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and hosts Zimbabwe.

Draws for the pool stages are expected to be made on August 25 or 26.