The national women football team the Mighty Warriors crashed out of the All-Africa Games underway in Maputo, Mozambique, after going down 2-1 to Ghana on Thursday.
An injury time winner by Ghana, the Black Princesses, broke the hearts of the Zimbabwean team who had taken a first half lead though Marjory Nyaumwe.
The West Africa team, which is ranked second best on the continent behind Nigeria, had equalised early in the second half.
The defeat effectively ended the Mighty Warriors’ hopes of qualifying to the next round as they have zero points after losing their first match 4-1 to a second-string South African side on Monday.
Zimbabwe will now play a dead rubber against Tanzania on Saturday.
The Twiga Stars has a point after playing a draw against South Africa yesterday, a match that followed their 2-1 loss to Ghana on Monday.
They will go into the match against the Mighty Warriors still harbouring their chances of sneaking in to the next round should South Africa fall to Ghana.
The Black Princesses top Group B with six points and have already qualified for the semi-finals going into their final group match against second-placed Banyana Banyana who have four points.
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The two teams will be fighting for the top position in the group.
The Mighty Warriors became the third squad for Team Zimbabwe to crash out of the games.
Zimbabwe women basketball were also booted out on Wednesday after losing their fourth match to Algeria.
Christopher Selgate who was representing Zimbabwe in Triathlon returned home on Monday after coming fourth, thereby missing on the medal roll call.
However, while the other disciplines continue to stutter at the games, the women swimming team continues to shine.
The relay team of Kirsty Coventry, Samantha Welch, Kirsten Lapham and Nicole Horn won their second silver medal yesterday in the 4x100m freestyle after clocking 3:57,81secs, just behind the South Africa team.
Coventry and crew won their first silver medal in the 4x100m individual medley on Tuesday, again after coming short against a South African team.
The two silver medals by the women swimming team add to Coventry’s two gold medals she won in the 100m backstroke and 400m individual medley earlier this week.
The swimming ace was scheduled to compete in the 100m and 200m butterfly finals last night where she is expected to harvest more medals.
Lapham was also expected to go head-to-head with compatriot Coventry in the 200m butterfly, having qualified for the finals of the same event.
Another medal was also on the offing for the swimming team as Welch was set to participate in the 100m breaststroke on Thursday night.
The men’s swimming relay team of Timothy Ferris, James Lawson, Nicholas Burnett and Grant Behan was also expected to compete in the 200m backstroke event on Thursday.
There was also another glimmer of hope for Team Zimbabwe on Thursday when the netball team, another genuine medal hopeful for the country, narrowly beat South Africa 30-29.
The netball team won their first match, thrashing hosts 69-3 on Monday, but came stuck against Botswana the following day, losing the match by five points.
There were mixed fortunes for the national table tennis team when they beat Mozambique 3-0 yesterday morning before falling to Gabon 3-1 later in the day.
Their women counterparts lost 3-0 to Gabon.
