adminMidlands Correspondent
The preparations for this year’s edition of the National Youth Games that are pencilled for Midlands are at an advanced stage with the organisers, saying they have covered much ground. The youth games will be held in two phase. The first phase will run from August 15 to 20, while the second block will compete from August 20 to 22.
Midlands Provincial Sports Coordinator, Mr Simon Masaka, said the preparations were going well with most ground having been covered so far.
“I can say we have covered 75 percent of the preparations so far, he said. We have secured all our game villages and venues and we are ready for the games. We are however, still working on the athletics track at Chaplin High School, but we are confident that it will be done by the 14th of August.
Other than that all other venues are ready for use.”
Mr Masaka said they had budgeted $1,3 million for the smooth flow of the games.
“For the preparations of the game including refurbishing of sports facilities, we had initially set aside $1,3 million and it seems so far we are still in line with the budget,” he said.
Mr Masaka said the games will be held in Gweru and Kwekwe where accommodation facilities and venues for various sport codes have been secured.
“We have prepared game villages like Chaplin, Regina Mundi, Thornhill, Nashville High Schools, Midlands State University, and Mkoba Teachers College that will offer both accommodation and venues, said Mr Masaka.
We also have venues like Ascot Stadium and Zim-Alloys ground in Gweru and Kwekwe Sports Club and Kwekwe Polytechnic in Kwekwe.”
Mr Masaka said the youth games will run in two different blocks, with the ten geographical provinces battling it out first in the Under 13 and Under18 categories.
“The two age groups will have both the able bodied and the Paralympics running concurrently. That block will compete from 15 to 20 August,” he said.
The second block, the U23 category will then compete from August 20 to 22.
“The last pool is made up of virtual provinces where we have teams in the U23 age group from various tertiary institutions like universities, agriculture, teachers’, technical and vocational colleges among others,” he said.
The same pool will also have teams from Zimbabwe Republic Police, Zimbabwe Defence Forces, ZPRS and Airforce of Zimbabwe teams taking part.
This would be the first time that the Under 23 category has been included in the competitions.
Online Reporter