Emulate President, stakeholders urged

President Mugabe on Monday that they should come up with a development strategy for sport.
Addressing Team Zimbabwe members from the All Africa Games in Maputo recently, President Mugabe said the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, in conjunction with the Sports Commission, need to work on the development of a national sport strategy. He said the strategy would ensure more medals for Zimbabwe and a better platform for preparations.

Yesterday, Nyaundi threw his weight behind President Mugabe’s challenge and said it’s time corporates come to support the development of sport from grassroots and not join the bandwagon for rewards.
“He (President Mugabe) said stakeholders should have a strategy for development and I am appealing for people to start the ball rolling now.

“I used to run such a programme in athletics with Academy Stars before we folded after failing to get constant funding because the economy was down. But the President has touched on our nerves and this should encourage people to react positively.

“Maybe if we get funding we can revive a programme for training our athletes so that in about eight to 10 years time, they can get medals for Zimbabwe,” said Nyaundi.
Zimbabwe got 15 medals from the All-Africa Games in Maputo but the athletics team was a big let down after failing do deliver a medal despite so much promise. Top sprinters Ngoni Makusha, Gabriel Mvumvure, Brian Dzingai and Namatai Mawugara failed to join the team from their base in the United States.

“We stopped the programme because funding was no longer coming but now we can revive it again if the Sports Commission, the National Athletics Association and us as the coaches come together. Now is high time we start taking athletics as a full time profession like football and all we need is access to the track at the stadium, offices for administration and the gym,” said Nyaundi.

Meanwhile NAAZ president Joseph Mungwari said the athletics team failed to travel to Maputo after the event coincided with the World Championships in South Korea.

“In sport the presence or the absence of one person can make the difference.
“Regrettably the absence of the elite athletes was something beyond our control.
“Secondly our standard or level of performances at the highest level does not have a wide base enabling us to field two very strong teams at two very high performing competitions such as the All-Africa Games and the World Championships.”