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THE 13th edition of the Zimbabwe National Youth Games ended last Saturday in Mutare, with the host province writing its own piece of history after clinching the games for the first time since inception in 2003.
Although on the whole the NYGs were a resounding success in terms of participation and performance by athletes from all over the country, it is the quality of the games that was brought to question by several stakeholders.
Even Sports and Recreation Commission director sport development, Joseph Muchechetere, acknowledged that his thrust in the near future was on enhancing the quality of the games, given the national importance now placed on the annual event.
Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Mandi Chimene, during her welcome dinner she hosted as the patron last Wednesday, said there was need for Government to realise the large turnover the country could generate from professionalising sport.
“The National Youth Games are not only an ideal platform for developing the country’s sporting talent, but they also serve as a guide to push the country to greater heights in terms of its sporting developmental programmes. It also gives local authorities in the hosting province the opportunity to develop sporting infrastructure with the assistance of various public and private stakeholders.
“However, what we should seriously take at heart as a nation is that sport is now big business worldwide and we hope to see our sports industry grow in the near future,” said Chimene.
The call for the development of a sports industry comes in the wake of massive exodus of athletes over the past years to neighbouring South Africa, United States of America, United Kingdom and Europe, in search of greener pastures.
In North America, the sports industry generated nearly $60 billion last year with revenue generated from gate takings, sponsorship deals, merchandising and media broadcasting rights of various sporting games.
South Africa, which has professionalised most of its sporting disciplines, is said to consume about $138 million in sponsorship expenditure annually, while Zimbabwe spends a meager $1,3 million annually according to SportBusiness Group statistics.
Despite the notable improvement in the number of sporting disciplines at this year’s NYGs, from four disciplines in 2003 to eight this year, sports critics said incorporation of more disciplines was critical, especially those already being fielded in regional and national tournaments that Zimbabwe competes in.
“We are still lagging behind in promoting various other sporting disciplines fielded in other regional and international tournaments such as cycling, golf, karate, netball, swimming, rugby sevens, table tennis, triathlon and volleyball to mention a few. These games we are already being competed in regionally, but we are failing to advance them nationally through our Zimbabwe National Youth Games,” said a sports analyst, Takunda Munyebvu.
On the other hand, Team Manicaland Youth Games general manager, James Mwonzora, on Wednesday, said he was in high spirits that Manicaland Province made it for the first time since 2003.
“I am glad that the promises that I made to the nation have been accomplished. From the look of things during the camping that was done at Hartzell High School before the Games, I had the feeling that Manicaland would make it.
“We have demonstrated that the eastern province has talent within it and we have written our own piece of history. I am very delighted to be the province’s first general manager to win the Youth Games. We will be the defending champions in Mashonaland next year and I want to ensure the nation that we will defend our title jealously,” said Mwonzora.
Mwonzora also expressed appreciation to Chimene as the patron for her unwavering support throughout the buildup of the Games.
Manicaland amassed a total of 12 gold medals to win the week-long annual multi-sports discipline event that drew participants from the country’s 10 provinces. Of the 12 gold medals collected by Manicaland, 11 of them were from athletics, while the 12th medal came from tennis. Apart from the gold medals, the eastern border province also garnered five silver medals and eight bronze medals to collect a total of 25 medals.
Harare Province, which had its volleyball girls’ as well as the boys’ and girls’ soccer teams disqualified during the course of the games owing to non-payment of affiliation fees, came second with a total of 34 medals, nine gold, 16 silver and nine bronze medals.
Mashonaland East settled for third position with eight gold medals, nine silver and seven bronze medals to make a total of 24 while Masvingo Province, in fourth position finished with eight gold medals, three silver and five bronze medals to make a total of 16.
In fifth position was Mashonaland West Province, which amassed a total of 31 medals – seven gold medals, six silver, and 18 bronze while Matabeleland South settled for sixth position with six gold medals, three silver and bronze to make a total of 12 medals.
Bulawayo was seventh with a total of five gold medals, 16 silver and 13 bronze medals to make a total of 34 medals. Mashonaland Central and Matebeleland North came eighth and ninth respectively, while Midlands was on position 10.
In general the 2013 edition of the National Youth Games was a success, save for the disqualification of teams from Harare and Matabeleland South owing to their failure to pay $80 affiliation fees per each affiliate. The next edition of the games will be held in Mashonaland West Province next year.
Online Reporter