Online Reporter
Ellina Mhlanga
Zimpapers Sports Hub
TEAM Zimbabwe chef de mission for the fourth African Youth Games Charmaine Chamboko says the event is a stepping stone to build on the future.
The continental multi-sport show-piece is scheduled for December 10 to 20 in Angola with athletes aged between 14 and 17 years from the 54 African countries participating.
The Games, spearheaded by the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), are aimed at promoting sports among the youths and identifying and nurturing young talent for other major competitions such as the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), African Games and the Olympic Games.
Zimbabwe are fielding 83 athletes across 12 sport codes — athletics, badminton, beach volleyball, cycling, golf, judo, karate, rowing, swimming (including open water), table tennis, taekwondo and tennis.
“For some of our athletes this could be their first major competition in terms of continental games at this kind of level.
“It’s definitely important for them to start here, and then we will also be able to identify who can take us to YOG and maybe Brisbane (Olympic Games) for 2032 as well.
“For us we are seeing this as the first stepping stone for the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee in starting to identify those athletes as well,” said Chamboko.
The next edition of the Youth Olympics is set for next year in Dakar, Senegal. It is going to be the first time the Games are held on African soil.
Chamboko added, going to Angola, they are not just focusing on athletes but other areas as well in terms of capacity building for involved members including officials.
“But for us it’s not just about athletes anymore. We are trying to identify everybody, in terms of team management, who is doing well there?
“Is the CDM going to do a good job? Is the technical team going to do a good job, the coaches, the referees?
“It’s capacity building for everybody and a whole delegation.
“For us these are important Games to set the standard for ourselves as we go into the rest of the quadrennial and the following quadrennial as well . . . ZOC has set a strategic plan up to after Brisbane in 2033,” Chamboko said.
Chamboko confirmed preparations are ongoing with athletes training with their respective coaches.
“Team Zimbabwe is undergoing a decentralised high-performance training programme.
“This is a structured training programme in which the athletes are following sport code-specific pro-grammes from their different locations under the guidance and monitoring of a central multi-disciplinary technical team.
“Regular monitoring and reporting is being done remotely through performance data, periodic check-ins and appraisals by technical teams from the athlete base. The model has been adopted due to the Games programme running parallel with the school calendar and coinciding with the school examinations.
“In terms of performance we can probably only give that to the end of this week because we are still going around to also see the athletes ourselves at their trainings and to speak to their technical teams.
“And then we can sit down as the management team to see what it is that we can realistically set as a target.”
The Games also present a platform to promote inclusion, cultural exchanges and unity. The team is going to travel in batches with the first group expected to leave on December 8.
