From ELIAS CHIPEPO In Brazzaville –
ZAMBIA handball team captain Ethiphen Banda says stage fright and lack of experience contributed to her side’s first round elimination from the Congo Brazzaville 2015 All-Africa Games (AAG).
Meanwhile, coach Gaston Mulubwa has called on basketball players to take an interest in playing handball.
Banda said in an interview after her side’s elimination following a 59-16 defeat to Ivory Coast at the weekend that playing for the first time at the AAG in front of a huge crowd and against an experienced team like DR Congo was not easy.
She said the Zambian team had gotten used to playing against regional neighbours but found the competition much harder at the AAG and has since called for heavy investment in the sport.
Banda said Team Zambia lacked proper training facilities and needed to start playing against French-speaking countries to gain the lacking experience.
“It wasn’t easy to play in front of such a big crowd and against an experienced side like Congo in the first match. But I am happy that the girls looked confident in the second game although we need to do more to be at the levels Congo and Ivory Coast are at.
“The other problem I saw was that we lacked endurance and that is something we need to work on. The players need to be going to the gym so that we can build on our strength. I also hope companies can come on board and help us. Like in my case, it’s my parents who have to give me money to that I can compete in this sport,” she said.
Mulubwa, in a separate interview, said that he was disappointed with Zambia’s elimination from the tournament and vowed to go flat out to recruit more players who are well-built.
He said basketball players, by virtue of their physical appearance and strength, needed to consider also playing handball as that would greatly help boost the sport on top of having good sponsorship.
“Yes we are out of the tournament but we need to go flat-out and recruit taller players and I want to encourage basketball players to come on board and consider playing handball,” he said.
He said it was a good outing for the team that had learnt valuable lessons for future competitions.
“The future is very bright. We need companies to come on board and invest in the sport. The performance was not bad considering the competition we faced and playing for the first time,” he said.
Head coach Maria Ophem expressed hope that Zambians would now get interested in playing the sport after watching the team compete at the AAG.
Ophem said she foresaw a great future for the players in the coming four years and urged the team to build on the experience gained at the competition for the future competitions.