The Sunday Mail
Some say ‘praise is like sunshine, it helps things to grow’.
Ajit Verma and Paul Kopolo are two of Zimbabwe’s top Badminton players; sporting greats even.
In local tournaments like the Eagles Wings, if it wasn’t Verma it surely had to be Kopolo walking away with the all-important win.
If these two seem to have the game on lock, then Thabani Mathe is their heir apparent.
The 20-year-old boy has caught the attention of Kopolo who is also the national team player/coach.
“He is an exciting talent with so much potential he could be a big name in Africa.
“Of course there are bigger nations like Mauritius with excellent players, but Mathe is one player who can surprise many,” Kopolo said of Mathe who turned professional two months ago.
Zimbabwe is set to participate in the Thomas and Uber Cup qualifiers in Algeria next month and Mathe’s is almost certain to make the final squad.
“He is 100% in and like I said he is an exciting player with some experience from tournaments in South Africa, Zambia amongst other international tournaments,” said Kopolo.
How does Mathe feel about Kopolo’s compliments?
“It is a morale booster since such praise is coming from one of the gods of Zimbabwean and African badminton,” he said.
“You can imagine how it feels when it comes from a person you looked up to when you were growing up.
“It made me shriek in delight to be honest, but it makes all the hard work i put in as an individual all the more worth it to say the least,” said the former Mazowe High student.
Mathe a commendable record in his junior’s career and that potential is showing in his fledgling professional career. “Since I’ve started my senior tournaments, not more than two months ago, the best in that regard has to be the Zambia International of November last year where I got to the Round of 16 stage of the tournament where I was one of the two junior players(the other player was from Italy),” he said.
“In my junior career I played at the Annual All Africa Junior Championships in Mauritius winning a bronze medal in 2014.
“And twice I have played in South Africa in Cape Town 2015 and Pretoria in 2016 where I also won a bronze medal,” he said.
Mathe started playing badminton as a form one student in 2011, and now dreams of a bright future.
“Well it all started when I was in form 1 at Mazowe, back in 2011, when I saw a weird little feather thingy on the floor in our classroom.
“So on a quest to find out what it was, I grew fonder of the sport.
“The rest, as they say, is history.
“Now, qualifying for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in the summer of 2020 is the goal, that together with winning medals at the annual Badminton World Federation World Championships,” he said.
