adminSikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
TEAM Zimbabwe’s preparations for the forthcoming sixth edition of the African Union Sports Council Region Five Under-20 Games have started on a rocky patch due to inadequate funding.
The Games will be held in Bulawayo from December 4-15.
The organisers have come up with a $745,000 budget for the 216 athletes and 47 coaches and $250,000 has already been paid by government as participation fees for the Games.
“Funding has really been our Achilles heel, no doubt about that and this has forced us to stagger our training programmes as we cannot afford to have everyone in camp,” said Team Zimbabwe spokesperson Tirivashe Nhehweyembwa.
He said by now they should be having goal-oriented training but due to funding challenges, they had been forced to restrict their sessions to athletes based in the capital.
“National Sports Stadium management gave us a waiver on the use of their tartan track and over the weekend we had a session there, same as basketball but that’s not enough. We appeal to the corporate world to come on board and assist us in that regard, the government has already set the ball rolling,” said the spokesperson.
Nhehweyembwa said at the moment they were looking for close to $100,000 to cover their camping expenses, adding that they now want to have a weekend camp until they get into final preparations in Bulawayo from November 25 right up to the start of the Games.
Team Zimbabwe has 40 swimmers (boys and girls), 24 basketball players (boys and girls), 36 football players (boys and girls), 50 track and field athletes (boys and girls), 10 boxers and an equal number of judo athletes, 12 netball and four tennis players as well as 30 athletes who will compete in athletics for the visually impaired (boys and girls).
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