THE curtain comes down on 2024 in two days and what a year it has been for Zimbabwe sports teams in terms of success.
From the national men’s rugby team winning the Africa Cup and going through the year unbeaten, to the Warriors qualifying for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals and the men and women’s netball teams bagging gold at the Africa Netball Championships among other success stories.
Despite the never ending challenging socioeconomic environment, sport continued to give the struggling citizens something to cheer about.
Even at individual level, there were some successes to celebrate during the course as sprinters Tapiwanashe Makarau and Makanakaishe Charamba reached the 200m final at the Paris Olympics.
Standardsport looks at some of the highlights of the 2024 sporting season for Zimbabwe.
Sables cap off a historic unbeaten year
In July, the Sables defeated first-time finalists Algeria 29-3 in Kampala, Uganda, to win their first Africa Cup title since 2012 and also climbed to a nine-year high of 28 in the World Rugby Men’s Rankings.
On the way to the final, the team managed to beat perennial bogey side Namibia.
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The Sables went on to upstage South Korea and the United Arab Emirates later in the year as they ensured an unbeaten season.
The Piet Benard-coached side will actually finish the year ranked 27th in the world.
Warriors make Afcon 2025
Not to be outdone, the Zimbabwe senior men’s national soccer team managed to grab a ticket to the 2025 Afcon finals, which will take place in Morocco.
After a disastrous start to the team’s 2026 World Cup qualification campaign, where the team sits bottom of the table in their group, not much was expected in the Afcon qualifiers.
Drawn in Group J along with five-time champions Cameroon, Kenya and Namibia, Zimbabwe managed to finish with nine points from six games, which was enough to grab the second ticket from the group.
As expected, Cameroon comfortably topped the group with 14 points from four wins and two draws.
Credit goes to German coach Michael Nees who joined the team in August and immediately transformed them into a strong side.
Earlier in the year, the Warriors actually lost to minnows Lesotho in the World Cup qualifiers.
Netball teams settle for bronze at Africa Championships
The Zimbabwe women netball team, affectionately known as the Gems, had a fairytale run at the Africa Netball Championships in Namibia in November and December after they finished third in the tournament.
It was a tournament in which the team managed to beat Uganda, who are ranked sixth on the world rankings, for the first time and also managed to upstage Malawi, who are highly ranked.
The Gems found the going tough against the continent’s powerhouse South Africa to whom they lost in the semifinals, but went on to despatch Malawi 48-42 in the third-place playoff.
The men netball team also had a good run at the tournament after they managed to finish in third place.
There are other sports teams that performed well such as the junior golf team after finishing second overall at the All-Africa Junior Golf Team Championship in Johannesburg in April.
The Junior Sables also lost their Bathes Trophy title to Kenya after going down 28-13 in Harare back in April, while the junior women’s hockey team qualified for the Africa Cup, which was supposed to take place in November before it was postponed to a later date.
Two of the country’s representatives on the Caf Champions League and Confederations Cup — Ngezi Platinum Stars and Dynamos — failed to go through to the group stages in their respective competitions.
Women’s team Herentals Queens managed to reach the semifinals of the Caf Women Champions League Cosafa qualifiers.
