adminTobias Mandoreba in Hwange
THE glory days of Hwange athletics look set to bounce back following a vibrant junior athletes development programme initiated by the Hwange Colliery Sports department and some former athletes. In an interview, Teurai Chinguwa, who donned the blue, gold and yellow kit in the track for the team from the late 1990s to 2006 in the 800m and 1500m categories vowed to do everything possible to ensure athletics in Hwange reverts to the memorable days through grooming of young talent.
“Athletics is in my blood veins hence I am craving to ensure we work with the sports office to identify and develop young athletes from within the district who will put Hwange back on the map.
“When I got injured in 2006 I took a short rest before embarking on this programme towards the end of 2009 in conjunction with the sports office together with other former athletes Themba Ncube and Gabriel Chikomo,” said Chinguwa.
According to him, their initiative culminated in the hosting of the Hwange Open Championships on 8 June at the Hwange Colliery Stadium.
“As part of identifying talent, we hosted the championships at the Colliery Stadium on 8 June where we had young athletes coming from areas including Dete, Victoria Falls, Jambezi, Mabale and the local concession area. The competitions were made possible through the valued support of the estates department though I feel more can be achieved if we have the corporate world chipping in with other forms of assistance to ensure full sport development in the country,” he added.
The team currently has 12 athletes under the stable with six of these are being part of the Matabeleland North provincial team to take part at the Zimbabwe National Youth Games to be held in Bulawayo from 17-25 August.
“The fruits of the hard work have seen six of our athletes forming part of the provincial team for the Zimbabwe National Youth Games. These are Wesley Gatsi, Stanlac Siyamuloba, Valecious Shoko, Temba Ncube, Alien Sibanda, Brandon Ngwenya and Alisto Milazi,” said Chinguwa.
Hwange sports officer Kenny Nyape confirmed the development.
“This programme is proceeding very well and it is a pleasure that some athletes have made it to the provincial team for the Youth Games but we will devote more time to this cause as we hope to have some athletes who will make it to the national team for the Sadc Youth Games to be held next year in August in Bulawayo at the Nust complex,” said the soft spoken Nyape.
With resources permitting, plans are underway for the former athletes to go around the district in primary and secondary schools holding competitions as the province boasts of lots of potential on the athletics front.
Primary schools in the Concession area have also been targeted for development as triangular series competitions have been held from last year. Before the local competitions in June this year, the Hwange junior team also participated at the Sparrows Open Championships last year.
Hwange town has produced a lot of household names in the past few years and these include pint-sized Gabriel Chikomo, Savieri Nghidi, Benjamin Songoya, Phillip Mukomana, Ferinando Kurambisanwa, Pedzisai Pfakatya, Tryson Shonhayi and Morven Pakarimwa who is now based in South Africa.
Online Reporter