adminThe event caters for the Under-12, Under-13 and Under-14 age groups and Midlands amassed a total of 18 medals including nine gold, three silver and six bronze and for their efforts they got US$5 000.
In second place were Manicaland with 15 medals comprising four gold, seven silver and four bronze and they walked away US$3 000 richer.
Hosts Harare settled for third place with 15 medals, two gold, five silver and eight bronze.
Harare got US$2 000 for the athletics competition and US$5 000 in the physical competition.
Mashonaland Central walked away with US$3 000 for coming second in the physical education competition and Mashonaland East, who finished third, got US$2 000.
Naph president, Cynthia Khumalo, said they were impressed with the level of competition and were grateful to Nestle Zimbabwe for sponsoring the event.
“We are very happy with the competition, it’s very close and we are happy with the improvement of organisation.
“We are saying sport is part of our curriculum, it’s now big business but at the same time there is the issue of obesity. These days children are taken to school by cars and buses, unlike in the past, when we used to walk flong distances to and from school.
“With this physical education programme, we are saying people need to exercise and keep diseases away. We are saying let’s catch them young.
“We are very grateful to Nestle Zimbabwe and wish other companies could come on board and sponsor the ball games because it’s only this event with a sponsor,” said Khumalo.
Nestle Zimbabwe corporate communication and public affairs manager, Farai Munetsi, said they are happy with the improvement shown by provinces such as Harare.
“Last year was our first year to sponsor this and in 2013 all provinces were well prepared, they have taken this competition seriously and we can see improvement on provinces such as Harare, they have worked really hard in past year.
“Generally the standard has improved,” said Munetsi.
Munetsi, however, said they might move the event to other provinces as they were not getting community support in Harare.
“The disappointing thing is parents in Harare don’t come to support so we might decide to take it out of Harare. We wanted to use the National Sports Stadium because it’s of international standards. If we are to develop our athletes for international events such as the Olympics, they have to get used to using facilities with international standards,” said Munetsi.
Last year, Nestle Zimbabwe put in US$80 000 for the competition and they increased the amount to US$130 000 for this year’s edition.
Online Reporter