Highlanders, Railstars carry Byo’s hopes
A 14-MEMBER Highlanders darts squad left the city yesterday for the annual National Darts Association of Zimbabwe (Ndaz) Champion of Champions tournament set for Zesa Munyati in Kwekwe today.
Highlanders are one of the two teams that will represent Bulawayo in the annual tournament that has been dominated by Mashonaland West province.
“We are the debutants of the tournament but we hope to do well, looking at that we are Bosso and we have a reputation and brand to protect. It’s not going to be easy, that we know but we will give it out best shot,” said the Highlanders darts club spokesperson Lethukuthula Nkomo.
Together with Railstars, the two sides will carry the city’s hopes against 13 other provincial representatives where winners will get $500 plus gold medals.
Ndaz secretary general Stephen Mwarindira said all was set for the annual tourney and they were looking forward to an exciting clash.
“As the leadership we are happy, so far so good. A total of 15 teams will partake at this year’s tournament, representing all but two provinces, Mashonaland East and Matabeleland North. We are making efforts to revamp the sport in Matabeleland North and we were expecting ZRP Lupane to make it but I suspect they wrote their release letter a bit late,” said Mwarindira.
As usual, Mashonaland West, driven by the darts grandmaster David Nyemba and his son Kudzanayi, will be the team to beat.
According to Mwarindira, the other teams that will take part at this year’s tournament are Flying Eagles and Raylton from Harare, Madziro Snippers and Scorpions from Mashonaland Central, Redwing and Golden Arrows from Manicaland, Buchwa Support United and Tamakwa from the Midlands, Blanket Mine, Gwanda district from Matabeleland South, Mwenazana from Masvingo as well as the two teams from Mashonaland West, A team and Rio Zim.
Ndaz president Meynard Moyo is expected to grace the occasion as usual. — @skhumoyo2000. PROMINENT Namibian boxing promoter Nestor Tobias, who last weekend was in the country, has expressed a keen interest to bring his own promotion to the country.
Tobias, of Sunshine Boxing Promotions in Windhoek, is regarded as the “Don King” of African boxing.
He flew to Harare where he watched the justended New Dawn boxing show in the company of yet another promoter from Zambia, Christopher Malunga of Oriental Quarries Boxing Promotions, Zambia.
Also in attendance was Charles Manyuchi’s coach from the Zambian stable, Mike Zulu.
There are also indications that OQBP, who on August 26, 2006 put up a tournament in which the darling of Zimbabwean boxing featured for the first time before his home crowd, could also bring a new bill.
The Namibian, who enjoys great financial support from telecommunications giant Mobile Telecommunications Ltd, has under his Sunshine Boxing Promotions banner produced five world champions who include Harry “The Terminator” Simon, Paulus “The Hitman” Moses and Paulus “The Rock” Ambunda.
“I visited to have first-hand appreciation on the ground of what Zimbabwean boxing is like,’’ he told our Harare Bureau.
‘’We have had a number of your boxers coming down to Windhoek upon our invitation to fight, but perhaps now is the time to also bring their Namibian counterparts to Harare to reciprocate the boxing camaraderie that exists between our sister nations.
“It is a known fact that in the past, your country was regarded as a boxing giant and back then you managed to produce continental champions like the legendary Proud ‘Kilimanjaro’ Chinembiri.
“But it is also fact that the sport of boxing in Zimbabwe has taken a long sleep and it is people like me, Kalakoda and Oriental Quarries who can awaken it from the slumber.
“I firmly believe that with the talent that you have in abundance here, it will not take a lot of time to place boxing back on its rightful slot as the country’s second most popular sport.”
A good number of local boxers have travelled to Namibia for fights but, with the exception of Manyuchi and Ishmael Takudzwa Kuchocha, the rest have performed dismally.
They have blamed fatigue from the long road travel and biased officiating.