adminEllina Mhlanga, Harare Bureau
NATIONAL Association of Secondary School Heads head in charge of athletics Philip Chikomwe has rallied the team to do well in Confederation of Schools Sport Associations of Southern Africa Championships starting today at the National Sports Stadium.
The meet runs until Saturday with Botswana, Namibia and Malawi also expected to take part.
Lesotho, who had expressed interest in the event, have withdrawn and will now be sending two officials to attend meetings that are to be held on the sidelines of the competition.
Zimbabwe are the reigning champions.
A team of 162 athletes and officials has been camping at Queen Elizabeth.
The athletes have been training under the guidance of several coaches from the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe including director of coaching, talent identification and development Lisimati Phakamile.
Chikomwe said they are looking at fielding three athletes in each event in a bid to retain the title.
“We are absolutely cooling down now. We have trained enough, so we are just doing light training in preparation of the competition.
“Definitely we are confident we will retain the title. We have prepared enough. What is left is to see what the athletes will deliver on the field. But I am very optimistic we will deliver,” said Chikomwe.
Previously the competition was for Under-13 and Under-17 age groups but the organisers have since added another age-group, the Under-15s.
“They have added the Under-15s. We want to capture all age-groups in this competition both in Primary and Secondary schools. We want to have a full complement of all the ages (juniors) that is the Under-13s, 15s, 17s and 19s,” said Chikomwe.
Online Reporter