admincurtain came down on the event on Saturday.
This year’s Games were held in Matabeleland South from August 14 to 20 with all 10 provinces taking part in the competition.
Harare have over the past years dominated the Games and this year was no exception as they scooped 18 gold medals, 15 silver medals and 15 bronze to defend their title.
They were followed by Midlands who came second with 33 medals while Bulawayo won 28 medals to settle for third position and Mashonaland West finished on fourth place with 23 medals. The hosts were number six with 15 medals.
Sports Commission Youth Education through Sport national programme officer, Tirivashe Nheweyembwa said they were impressed with the level of competition displayed by the provinces during the Games.
“The competition has gone up for instance Bulawayo always play second fiddle to Harare but this time they came third and there was an improvement from Mashonaland West as they jumped from number six to number four and it implies that they have put a lot of hardwork,” said Nheweyembwa.
Nheweyembwa urged the national associations to come up with developmental programmes for the identified talented athletes during the Games.
“For now we are content and happy as SRC with the achievements. Our mandate is to ensure that sport is accessible to everyone, present an opportunity for talent identification.
“We have the likes of Ngonidzashe Makusha who were identified through these Games and he is blossoming as an athlete. We have seen the fruits of the Games and we are happy with the pace we are going.
“What we can only do now is to strength the brand. We hope that the national associations can take over from where we left and put those athletes into developmental programmes.
“They should have deliberate developmental programmes tailored to make hese athletes high performing athletes and we are calling upon national associations to come up with those programmes,” added Nheweyembwa.
Mashonaland Central are the hosts for next year’s 10th edition of the Games. Nheweyembwa revealed that after the 10th edition they are going to decide whether they should continue rotating the Games or have provinces bidding to host the competition.
“We hope Mashonaland Central have already started preparing for the Games because they are aware that they are the next hosting province.
“After the 10th edition we are going to see if we can continue to use the system of rotation or whether we can use a system whereby the provinces will bid to host the Games,” said Nheweyembwa.
He acknowledged all stakeholders who came on board to support this year’ event.
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