adminMzingaye Sibanda Sports Reporter
THE Bulawayo Metropolitan Province educational director (PED) Dan Moyo has challenged athletes to represent Zimbabwe in regional Cossasa ball games in Namibia on Thursday to go for gold.Moyo said the remarks at the official send off of the Zimbabwe team yesterday at Founders High School where the team had been in camp since last week.
The Zimbabwean team leaves for Namibia today, with the games starting on Thursday and running until the weekend. The team is made up of National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) and National Association of Primary School Heads (Naph) athletes.
Moyo challenged the children to represent the country well at the championships which are now an annual feature.
“Specialise and excel in these games, this is where you can be scouted and raise the country’s flag high like the legendary footballer Peter Ndlovu or Olympic gold medalist Kirsty Coventry,” said Moyo.
The National Association of School Heads, which caters for both Nash and Naph was encouraged to keep records of such events so that they could track the performance of the pupils for future use.
“The records for these athletes who participate in these games (Cossasa) or National Youth Games should be kept for future use, we have Zone V1 Youth Games coming up we, so we can follow our best athletes to find out how they are progressing, as we want the best to represent Zimbabwe,” said Moyo.
Nash president Johnson Madhuku challenged Team Zimbabwe to be disciplined when they are taking part at Cossasa games. “We are going as Team Zimbabwe not Nash or Naph, players have to represent the country fully and be disciplined, we will not accept any wayward behaviour,” said Madhuku.
He added that their advantage this time around was that they were travelling with a more experienced team compared to last year.
Zimbabwe came second in the last edition of the Cossasa games held in Namibia last year. The team will comprise of 100 pupils and 42 officials from both Naph and Nash.
Zimbabwe will travel by road via Zambia, as they opted for the longer route as some pupils are using temporary travel documents which are not allowed in Botswana, which could have been a shorter route.
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