COPPER QUEENS ITCHING FOR ACTION

By MICHAEL MIYOBA COPPER Queens winger Prisca Chilufya says the Copper Queens are ready to compete against the best at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games slated to kick off next month in Japan. In an interview, Chilufya who features for Kazakhstan’s women’s league defending champions BIIK Kazygurt noted that the team has been in camp for over three months preparing for the Olympic. Zambia has been drawn in Group F with China, Brazil and the Netherlands. The Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Tokyo 2020 will run from July 21-August 6, 2021 and Chilufya believes group F is one of the toughest at the tournament. “The group is not easy because all the teams are tough and we all want one thing but we are going to show them that we are also good. “We don’t have friendly games but we are trying by all means to encourage ourselves because we know where we are going it is not going to be easy we will need to put in extra efforts,” she said “Our friends have been preparing for the tournament for a long time, even us we have been in camp for three months and we are ready and prepared for the tournament,” Chilufya said. She said her experience of playing in Europe will enable her to make positive contributions to the team which will represent the whole African continent at the Tokyo Olympics. “Competition is very high in Europe because our friends are very committed with what they do in training so that when it is game time they already know what to do so we are trying by all means to try and copy what they do,” “When we go to the Olympics we are not going there as the Zambian women’s team but Zambia as a country and Africa. Everyone should support us not just Zambians but the whole of Africa because we are going there to represent not just Zambia but the whole of Africa,” Chilufya said. The Copper Queens have been in camp for three months continues to intensify their local preparations and will play a practice match against Heroes Select side before facing the Young Green Buffaloes men’s team next week.