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Leemisa Thuseho
LESOTHO’S under-18 and under-20 teams have been dismal in the ongoing Men’s International Handball Federation (IHF) Africa Zone VI Trophy in Zimbabwe.
The regional tournament started on 17 October and is ending today.
Lesotho sent only two teams to the tournament.
The under-20 side got the tournament off to a good start beating eSwatini 27-7.
They failed to maintain the momentum after being thumped 59-18 by Zambia in their second game.
In the third game, they lost 46-11 to Zimbabwe before they were beaten by neighbours, South Africa 55-15.
They will take on Malawi in their last game today.
The under-18 team also failed to rise to occasion losing 58-9 to Zambia in their opening game. Things only got worse in the second game when they were hammered 68-6 by Zimbabwe.
On Friday they were edged 20-17 by eSwatini ahead of their last game today against Malawi.
Speaking to the Sunday Express yesterday, one of the coaches, Limpho Tshabalala, said the poor performance were an indication of the poor preparations.
“The players are doing their best given the poor preparations they had,” Tshabalala said.
“Due to lack of funds, it wasn’t easy to prepare the teams. We didn’t have a single camp ahead of these games. I think the players deserve credit for getting this far.”
Another is issue is that the teams last played international games in 2018. This means the majority were playing an international game for the first time.
