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According to the final medals table announced in the presence of Vice President Landa John Nkomo and other dignitaries on Friday afternoon at the Colliery Stadium, Masvingo came first with 26 gold, 13 silver and 20 bronze medals while Midlands came second with a gold less, 14 silver and 19 bronze medals. Bulawayo were third with 19 gold, seven silver and just five bronze medals.
However, a simple check of the final medals print out for all the disciplines clearly exposes the anomaly and raises serious questions about the appointed officials’ pedigree.
In athletics alone, Bulawayo got 18 gold medals but their overall gold medals haul was put as 19, meaning in the other six disciplines, the province only managed a single gold medal. Bulawayo got gold in wheelchair tennis (men), wheelchair tennis (boys) and wheelchair tennis (girls). The province also reigned supreme, in goalball winning 2-0 over Mashonaland West to clinch gold and posted a 23-20 wheelchair basketball final win over Harare. How the officials failed to notice such a glaring anomaly boggles the mind.
There were also mistakes in athletics with Bulawayo’s Enock Matupiri being given a silver medal in the intellectually-challenged men’s 1 500m race despite clocking four minutes 45.85 seconds compared to Samuel Kunaka of Mashonaland West who came home in four minutes 47.08 seconds but was given a gold medal.
“We have noticed the mistakes and I think some provinces will end up being way below where they were,” said the Games’ general manager, technical Enock Ngwenya on Saturday morning ahead of departure.
Zimbabwe National Paralympic Games general manager Martin Dururu also concurred that what was presented on Friday was not the correct picture of what really occurred on the ground.
“Soon after the announcement of the final results, some provinces queried the outcome but due to the time factor we could not have a meeting to discuss their grievances. I will however call for all the competition directors on Wednesday to where I expect the proper announcement of results and then later on call the concerned provinces,” said Dururu.
Asked on what could be the possible reasons for the continuous and embarrassing mistakes for an event of this magnitude, Dururu said there was a serious need to revisit the criteria used to appoint officiating officials.
“It’s a worrying factor really that mistakes of this nature continue happening at this level of competition. It could be that some of the appointed official are inexperienced or under-qualified so we need to visit our criteria well in time before the Zimbabwe National Youth Games in Bindura in August,” said Dururu.
While Dururu could lay the blame on some of the officials, the actual culprits could be some of the Sport and Recreation Commission staff as the officials submitted all the results for final recording but those in charge of that simply decided not to capture all the information.
Meanwhile, there was chaos on Friday night at Hwange High School when some SRC officials were temporarily detained by angry officials over non-payment of allowances.
The officials and some service providers were not paid their allowances, as has been the norm in previous editions as the local organising committee was allegedly working with a shoe-string budget following a delay by the Government to release about $70 000 for the Games.
Online Reporter