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 | | Monday, 29 April, 2002, 11:26 GMT 12:26 UK Tears for Zim in women's final  South Africa have proved themselves the region's best South Africa have won the Cosafa women's tournament, beating hosts Zimbabwe 2-1 in the final. A crowd of 35,000 at the Rufaro Stadium in Harare watched the game, the culmination of Southern Africa's first regional championship. It is one of the largest attendances ever recorded on the continent at a women's game. The hard-fought contest was high on emotion, and the Zimbabwe players burst into tears at the final whistle. South Africa went ahead in the first half through tournament top scorer Veronica Phewa, her 17th goal from five games. Crowd violence The stadium erupted when Pretty Phiri equalised for Zimbabwe in the 57th minute, but Portia Modise put South Africa back in the lead a minute later.
Zimbabwe had lost by the same scoreline to their fierce regional rivals at the 2000 African championships. Zimbabwe coach Benedict Moyo said: "Second-best isn't good enough. We had to win this one." South Africa assistant coach Neil Tovey felt that his team deserved to win. "We missed a lot of chances, and the 3-1 win in the semi-final against Zambia was tougher." Earlier, Zambia had beaten Mozambique 1-0 in the third place play-off. Apart from the disturbances at the final, the tournament was deemed a great success, and provided highly entertaining football. The 16 matches produced an extraordinary 104 goals, and average of over six per game. Cosafa now intends to make the championship an annual event. | | See also:  Other top Africa stories: Links to more Africa stories are at the foot of the page. | |
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