AAG team named

in September.
Team Zimbabwe deputy chef de mission Joseph Muchechetere said yesterday that the national associations for the participating disciplines had identified the 140 athletes who would fly the country’s flag at the Games, which are scheduled to run September 3-18.

Muchechetere, who is expected to travel to Mozambique today, said they will also be submitting the names of their team.
“Tomorrow (today) we are going to submit our list by names but it is still a provisional team because it has not been cleared by the Sports Commission.
“But in general we have verified the submissions by the national associations and most of them have made the qualifying standards.

“We have a team of 181 athletes and officials – 140 athletes, 33 team managers, members of the medical team and the team management,” said Muchechetere.
In Mozambique, Muchechetere will attend a chef de mission meeting, which is scheduled to start tomorrow.
Bertha Faranisi, who is in charge of administration will accompany Muchechetere at the three-day indaba whose main purpose is to get an update on the state of preparedness from the hosts.

“This is in line with the COJA plan, it has to engage the chef de missions of each team at least twice before the Games are held.
“We are also going to attend a meeting to finalise on the accreditation and to raise issues that are not clear on our side.
“We are not clear with the participation of athletes who are amputees, according to the chef de mission manual they will participate in swimming and it is not indicating whether they will participate in athletics.

“We need to seek clarification with regards that,” said Muchechetere.
Muchechetere also said they would tour the facilities that will be used for the Games.
“We also want to do the final tour of the sport facilities. When we went there in April the facilities were under construction and they are now going to show us how far they have gone on construction of the sporting facilities and accommodation.

“That would also enable the leaders of the teams to familiarise with the facilities and the host city,” said Muchechetere.
The Team Zimbabwe deputy chef de mission said they were expecting a bigger medal haul at the Maputo Games where the country will be represented in 17 disciplines – athletics, athletics for the visually impaired, badminton, basketball, boxing, chess, cycling, football, judo, karate, netball, sailing, swimming, taekwondo, table tennis, tennis and triathlon.

Zimbabwe’s organising committee public relations and media officer, Tirivashe Nheweyembwa said the national associations for the different disciplines have already started their preparations ahead of the Games.
But a final camp for Team Zimbabwe is scheduled to start on August 25 until the day of departure in Harare.
“These are the sporting disciplines that are going to represent Zimbabwe at the 10th edition of the All-Africa Games. The different sporting codes are currently preparing to participate in their various disciplines.

“However, the camp for Team Zimbabwe is set to start on the 25th of August until the team leaves for the Games. We have not finalised yet on the exact venue but it will be in Harare,” said Nheweyembwa.
Nheweyembwa said they are hoping for a better performance from the team when they compete against other African countries in September.

“We are very hopeful the performance will be better than what they did in their last outing in Algiers where we came 8th out of 43 countries.
“In the previous edition we did not have triathlon, netball, football, badminton and cycling,” said Nheweyembwa.

Nheweyembwa also urged the corporate world to come on board and support the team.
The Sports Commission appointed an organising committee to work on preparations of the Games and it includes the chef de mission Custom Kachambwa, Muchechetere who is in charge of the technical portfolio and Faranisi.

The other members of the committee are Julius Sanyika logistics officer, Tapiwa Nyagumbo finance officer, Xolani Ndlovu chief medical officer and Nheweyembwa.
The medical team is made up of three doctors, five physiotherapists and a nurse.