Zim handball team suffer fourth defeat

The Zimbabwe Handball junior team suffered their fourth consecutive defeat  at the ongoing International Handball Federation (IHF) Men's Youth and Junior Trophy Continental Phase Congo Brazzaville after they were outclassed 37-30 by Madagascar.Before that they had been defeated 55-20 by the hosts in their opening match,  41-13 against  Guinea and 50-19 to Nigeria.Their loss has also left them anchoring the log table with hope for a win only left in their final match today.The tournament kickstarted on Monday with a total of 11 teams taking part  both categories..   Burundi, Congo, Guinea, Nigeria and Zambia are participating in the youth tournament while Congo, Guinea, Madagascar, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Rwanda fighting it out in the juniors.Going into this tournament, the team coach Cephas Mushati admitted that  that they were underdogs and would use this opportunity mainly to improve themselves.Speaking after yesterday's match, the team assistant coach assistant Tafadzwa Madure commended the team's performance."Today's match against Madagascar started well with the boys playing their  hearts out- I'm very happy about the performance today. They are gaining a very good experience  because they managed to hold the team up to the better part of the second half. The margin was much better compared to the other games," said Madure."We haven't won any match so far but I'm very impressed with the boys though they are not at par with the speed of other teams here and they need an extra effort in terms of shooting- something we need to consider moving forward. They are also failing to get a lead from beginning  of the games so that they can play with less pressure. We will try to address all these during our assessment period tonight."As the tournament bring its curtain down today, Zimbabwe will face Rwanda in their final match of this tournament.Follow Magreth on Twitter @MagrethRuzvidzo