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Ronald Mashinga, Sports Reporter
THE Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) held a stakeholders consultative meeting at Mhlahlandlela government complex in Bulawayo yesterday for Matabeleland North province as part of the formulation of a National Sports and Recreation Strategy.
The meeting was attended by representatives of universities and the National Association of Secondary Heads (Nash), sports enthusiasts and media personnel.
South Africa-based archer and rower Andrew Matatu said that the next strategy for sports development must have a strict grassroots culture of identifying and nurturing talent at a young age.
“We need to get our football to the World Cup. If that is the issue then we must realise that it doesn’t start with Highlanders or Caps United, but it starts with your three-year olds. Periodisation is very important and a lot of people have no clue what periodisation is and what the benefits are,” Matatu said.
He said with periodisation comes muscle memory and mental toughness, giving an example that when our national teams are one point down, they tend to lose all hope and lack the mental toughness to get something from the match.
Sports enthusiast Brian Moyo said the SRC should also have sport structures that will see the development of players and not rely on individual families to invest in their children’s talents and passion for sports.
“You will realise that the most outstanding athletes come from families that invest in their children, such as the Coventry and Cyprianos families. The Cyprianos family has even gone on to build an Olympic size swimming pool at their house. The SRC needs to invest more in young players so that Zimbabwe becomes a sporting giant,” said Moyo.
The Coventry family heavily invested in the present Youth Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry, who went on to become an Olympic swimming gold medalist.
Denilson Cyprianos is a rising swimming sensation and broke the men’s national 100m backstroke in June.
The failure of proper sporting structures has propelled other athletes to look elsewhere.
Celebrated rugby player Tendai ‘‘Beast’’ Mtawarira was snatched by South Africa, which gave him citizenship enabling him to play for the Springboks.
“There is going to be a sports document to consolidate all these issues from across the country. We also need to identify people from this meeting that will be part of the forum to be held in Harare from October 21 to 23,” SRC Matabeleland North coordinator Newman Masuku said.
He said there will be a draft document that will be assessed by the board on November 8, with the official launch set for November 21.
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Bongani Ndlovu