Zimbabwe defeat Hong Kong to win the Tri-Nations Tournament

20 March, 2017

Hosts lose 42-28 to world number 17 at Kowloon Sports Park Center on Sunday having earlier beaten Asian champions Malaysia.

The Zimbabwe netball team underlined their status as one of the rising African powerhouses when they emerged victorious at the Hong Kong Tr-Nations tournament at the Kowloon Park Sports Center at the weekend. Zimbabwe won all their matches against the hosts and Malaysia to come out tops at the end of the four day event.

Host’s Hong Kong beat world number 19 side and Asian champions Malaysia to earn a place in the final after earlier losing 46 – 30. Zimbabwe slowly pulled away from Hong Kong in the final to seal the win with a 100% record after earlier also recording a 52-29 win over Malaysia.

“We are very proud of the whole tournament and the girls’ performance was beyond expectation having beaten the Asian champions Malaysia by four goals,” said Hong Kong Netball Association president Hancock.

“Having Zimbabwe at this tournament has not only raised the profile of netball in Hong Kong, but it has more importantly shown that Hong Kong are internationally competitive.”

Zimbabwe’s captain, Perpetua Siyachitema, said the tournament showed how much they have improved. “We are so excited. The win means so much to us. It shows that we are really improving.”

In the final between Zimbabwe and Hong Kong, the first quarter ended with the teams tied at 8-8 before Zimbabwe upped their game to take the second quarter 11-6. They continued their dominance taking the third and fourth quarters 13-10 and 10-4.

Siyachitema who has been with the team for nine years believes the tournament gave them an insight as to what they need to work on ahead of the African Championships in June, where Zimbabwe will be looking to defend their title.

Zimbabwe went into the tournament as favourites ranked 17 in the INF World Rankings Hong Kong and Malaysia occupied number 26 and 19 respectively.

The results from the weekend were as follows: