Triathlon Zim board re-elected

Simba Dube Sports Reporter
TRIATHLON Zimbabwe executive members retained their posts at the TZ’s 27th annual general meeting held at Borrowdale Brooke Golf Club last weekend. Rick Fulton retained his presidential post while Ian Duncan and Shaun Lawler were given the thumbs up as vice-president and treasurer respectively. The only change was the secretary-general post which went to Carol Pakenham taking over from Joy Higgins who did not seek re-election.

Following the resignation of Wayne Davidson on 24 June as national team coach, the appointment of a new mentor was also part of the agenda at the AGM.
Davidson threw in the towel ending months of speculation after he was dropped from travelling with the junior national team to Egypt for the Sharm El Sheik ATU Triathlon African Championships in May.

Acknowledging Davison’s resignation Fulton then said a new coach would be appointed during their AGM.
“The process to appoint a new coach will be dealt with by the new executive board at the forthcoming association’s annual general meeting to be held on 5 July,” said Fulton then.
The re-elected president told Sunday News Sports that they (executive board) will appoint the new coach in due course as they were constrained by the lack of suitable replacement for Davidson.

“The executive board will meet and decide on this appointment. The problem is that we do not have anyone as qualified as Davidson was,” said Fulton, adding that it would be pointless to appoint someone who had no knowledge about the work at hand.

Three national team selectors Doctor Austin Jeans, Pamela Fulton and Chris Budde-Petch were all reappointed as committee members, following commendable performance by Team Zimbabwe at the African Triathlon Championships where all the country’s six representatives finished in the top eight of their disciplines.

However, despite a successful year for triathlon, Fulton cited the current economic situation in the country as critical to the development of the sport in the country. An inhibiting factor was that all the cycling equipment needed to be imported.

As a move to develop the sport in the country, the association has vowed to conduct coaching courses at various schools interested in the sport.