Battle for sprint honours on at PE

By Ellina Mhlanga
PRINCE EDWARD High School will be a hive of activity when 20 schools converge for sprint events set for this afternoon.
The invitational competition will cater for both boys and girls, and 10 schools are expected to battle it out in each category.
Participants will take part in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1 500m, the 4x100m and 4x400m relay events.
Prince Edward’s sports director, Sebastian Garikai, said they have been holding the competition over the past years as part of their preparations for their athletics season.
“It is an annual invitational event. But it is sort of a season-opener for us because some schools might have already started their competitions.
“It is the first athletics event we are holding and we want to see where we are and how we are doing,” said Garikai.
Garikai said the meet also presents all participating schools with the opportunity to compete in a high-level event with different schools.
“It is an opportunity for schools to compete with other teams that they normally don’t compete with. Unfortunately, we cannot have more schools because we have few tracks at the school. We would have wanted a situation where everyone could come and compete.
“This is also a platform for coaches to share ideas because as a coach you can’t know everything,” added Garikai.
Some of the schools that will compete in today’s event include Cornway, Mozowe, Watershed, Peterhouse, Lomagundi, CBC, Girls High, Queen Elizabeth, Mabelreign, Gateway, St John’s College, St George’s College, Arundel and Chisipite.
Garikai said some of the schools that competed in the previous event were not coming, as they wanted to give others the chance to take part.
“It is just an idea of having different schools coming to this event. Each school will bring 32 athletes but some schools may decide to use one athlete for three different events,” said Garikai.
Prince Edward and Peterhouse are the defending champions in the boys’ and girls’ categories respectively.
Q. Elizabeth prepares for zonal champs
By Takudzwa Chitsiga
QUEEN Elizabeth Girls High School will hold track and field competitions on Friday to prepare a team for this year’s zonal championships.
The competition will see competitors taking part in three age groups – the Under-16, Under-18 and Under-20.
Fortunate Kampinda, the school’s sports organiser, is positive that the competition will help them pick a strong team for the zonal championships.
“We expect to build a strong school team from the competition we are going to hold on Friday.
“The finals of the zonal track and field events will be held at Prince Edward High School on March 11.
“This year we are looking forward to building a better team that can give stiff challenge to other schools,” said Kampinda.
Queen Elizabeth High School will, meanwhile, begin their preparations for the ball games next week with rugby being their major event.
The practice sessions for the events will start on Monday and Kampinda said he expected the school to do well.
“We are hopeful that this year we will be allowed to curtain-raise at the Cottco Schools Rugby Festival.
“Four schools – Queen Elizabeth, Girls High, Roosevelt and Tafara High 1 – are now playing girls rugby.
“Rugby has been viewed as sport for men but with the help of the Zimbabwe Rugby Union, we managed to access rugby balls.
“The union has given us the greenlight and we hope they will accept us in the finals to play as the curtain-raisers during the Cottco Schools Rugby Festival at Prince Edward.
“We have a team we were working on since last year and we are looking forward to maintaining the team and improve.
“If we are given the opportunity (to play at the Cottco Schools Rugby Festival), it will be a morale-booster and we will encourage other schools to take up women’s rugby as well. Our aim is to venture into minority sports and with rugby coming in on our schools sports calendar, it is a very big development,” said Kampinda.