Paralympics Committee hopes to send bigger team for London Games

qualify for the London Paralympics in August.
In 2008, at the Beijing Paralympics, the country had Elliot Mujaji and Molene Muza participating as wild card entries. The two representatives were allowed to participate without attaining qualifying standards after some serious lobbying by the Sport and Recreation Commission and the interim Zimbabwe Paralympic Committee.
What enhanced the country’s position was that Mujaji was going there as a two-time medallist in sprint events.
Lewis Garaba, the secretary-general of ZPC, confirmed that they were eager to have a bigger team and quality representation. He said an event in Tunisia in March and another in South Africa offered them the best chance to have their athletes considered for London.
The Tunisia event, an athletics competition, is pencilled in for 22-29 March.
“We have in Africa two remaining qualifiers for the Sixth International Athletics Meeting of Tunis from 22-29 March 2012. We are looking at athletics field and track events,” said Garaba.
Zimbabwe looks in a better position to excel in high-profile competitions since the launch of the Zimbabwe Paralympic Games five years ago. More talent has been exposed and those with visual impairment can participate in events with able-bodied escortees.
The Nedbank event offers a wider range of sporting disciplines. Garaba said they were yet to establish which ones would be IPC sanctioned as to be used as qualifiers for the Paralympic Games set for London.
“The Nedbank is offering other special sports but we are still finding out whether they are all IPC sanctioned,” said Garaba.
The ZPC management met last week and came up with names of potential representatives for both events. Past competitions such as the Zimbabwe Paralympic Games and the Danhiko Championships will be used as a barometer.
The issue of qualifying standards for international competitions is expected to raise the bar for local competitions, which could help the athletes and the image of the sport in Zimbabwe.
Garaba noted that sponsorship was a problem. He said they were in talks with a cross section of stakeholders that included the government through the SRC.
The Government sports body has been very supportive to ZPC and has funded most of their programmes and has been behind the establishment of a substantive association and its registration with IPC.
For the London Games, Zimbabwe already has 25 000 pounds in the kit from IPC. This is for air tickets for participants.
“IPC has already offered flight fees for participants and Pre-Games fee of 25 000 pounds. And there are yet more offers to come,” said the ZPC secretary-general.
Garaba applauded the relationship between his organisation and the SRC.
“We have a great relationship with SRC. They helped us come up with this substantive committee, from drafting the constitution and having a taskforce that oversaw the process towards the elections,” said Garaba.