The Gems coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki, who has been working with Hlungwane for several years.

The judges had 96-92, 98-89 and 100-86, in favour of the Zimbabwean, an illustration of how Chiwandire dominated the 10-round super bantamweight contest.

The tournament will run from October 18 to 23 with six countries confirming their availability namely Lesotho, Malawi, Eswatini, Zambia, hosts Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The Gems are set to compete at the Netball World Cup in Cape Town from July 28 to August 6.

Zimbabwe was drawn in Pool A together with defending champions, Australia, Fiji and Tonga.

Assistant coach Tatenda Shinya believes the team can still bounce back.

In all this team reshuffling, the 24-year-old Zimusi was lucky enough to earn the wing defence spot, shifting from her usual goal defence position.

The hosts, South Africa, are in Pool A together with Eswatini, Madagascar and Malawi.

This event takes place after every two years and for the first time in history, the tournament will see both male and female teams participating.

Phiri needed two of the 12-round title bout to claim the victory, defeating Kumwamba with a technical knockout after two minutes, 48 seconds of the second one.

Mathe undertook the training camp from September 19 to December 19 and believes that it was an eye opener on a lot of areas that need to be mastered in the badminton industry.

According to the latest world rankings, Zimbabwe has, however, managed to maintain their 13th position after these competitions.

Zimbabwe were stunned 43 – 41  by Zambia yesterday in a thrilling and nail biting match as both teams were eyeing for a spot for the upcoming global meet.