Chronicle Editor
Zimpapers Sports Hub
ONCE again Zimbabwe’s organisational capabilities in sport have been brought into the fore.
Arthur Maphosa, president of the Confederation of Schools Sport in Southern Africa, said that Zimbabwe appeared ready to play host to a good championship here in Bulawayo. This was after a meeting they held as the regional body and had been briefed by the hosts about what is on the ground yesterday.
Bulawayo is hosting the regional track and field and ball games’ championships for schools in the Sadc Region which has attracted Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Initially Lesotho were due to hold the athletics championships in the first third of the year but faced challenges forcing them to forgo the meeting.
In-stepped Zimbabwe who were the original hosts of the ball games. After getting an all-clear from Government, Cephas Mutume and his colleagues then set about organising for both.
“I must say as Cossasa we are very touched indeed by the level of preparedness by the local organising committee. We pay tribute to them. We are seeing no obstruction against the success of the games,” said Maphosa.
School teams from Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia were expected to be all here last night.
Maphosa disclosed after lunch that Lesotho had arrived with Eswatini having already crossed the Beitbridge Border Post and Zambia expected.
The regional games bring together primary and secondary school sporting talented pupils. They will compete in several disciplines among them athletics at White City, netball, basketball, soccer, tennis and handball.
Cossasa secretary-general, Letswele Jonas of Botswana, said the competition had done well to provide some great athletes from his country, Namibia and Zimbabwe who had excelled beyond their levels to take part in the Olympics.
Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo participated in Nambia and Francistown, Botswana in 2017 and 2018 and had gone on to distinguish himself as a world beater in athletics.
“There are so many, including Olympic 200m champion, Letsile and members of the Botswana 4x400m relays team. Namibia and Zimbabwe too had athletes who have come through the Cossasa,” said Jonas.
Zimbabwe 200m record holder Tapiwanashe Makarawu with a time of 19.93 seconds and finished a credible sixth at the Paris Olympics has also taken part in the championships as has Chengetai Mapaya who missed qualification by a whisker and was rated 29th in the world in June in triple jump.
The regional competition starts tomorrow and ends on 29 August.
Today will be spent on accreditation and familiarisation of facilities.
Online Reporter