Rwanda National Handball under 17 women’s team were crowned winners of the IHF Trophy Africa 2023 Zone V after edging Burundi 38-13 in the final game played at Benjamin Mkapa Indoor Stadium, Dar es Salaam, over the weekend.
The Thousand Hills queens raised the national flag in Dar es Salaam in piping 8 other countries which participated in this year’s edition featuring Zone Five members.
Rwanda reached the final after eliminating Ethiopia in the semifinal game played on Saturday by a humbling score of 47-06 goals after full time.
U-17 celebrate winning the IHF Zone V trophy.
This year’s IHF Trophy Africa 2023 Zone V started on 25th April in Dar es Salaam Tanzania where 8 countries from Zone V participated and were divided into two groups. Group A consisted of the hosts Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and Djibouti while group B had Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
Rwanda started their campaign well, winning all their group stages games plus the final games, emerging IHF Trophy Africa 2023 Zone V winners with an unbeaten run.
The U-17 side started the tournament by humiliating Djibouti by 52-2 in the opening game before going on to beat South Sudan 45-15 in the second game. In the final group stage game, the Rwandan girls beat the hosts Tanzania 46-13 before the home crowd.
During their final phase games, Rwanda continued their winning streak by beating Ethiopia in the semifinals by 47-06 and then Burundi was next to suffer the wrath of the rampaging young girls who won the final game in style, score 38 against Burundi’s 13 goals, to emerge victorious.
U-17 girls celebrating after beating Burundi on final game.