UZ crowned champions

Sports Reporter
UNIVERSITY of Zimbabwe were yesterday crowned champions for their annual inter-faculty sports gala held yesterday at their campus.
This year’s event was dubbed UZ SportAIDS gala after the institution partnered with The SportAIDS Project.
The SportsAIDS project is a community based initiative which focuses on both prevention and behavioural change among the youth.
The project seeks to contribute towards the country’s Mid Term Plan 2011 to 2015 with specific bias towards HIV and AIDS, sports development and promotion.

The gala, which has been running for the past four weeks in round-robin format, attracted a number of teams selected from UZ, Women University in Africa and Harare Institute of Technology competing in athletics, football and netball.

UZ dominated most of the events with their faculty of law team scooping gold in football and they emerged the overall winners of the event.
UZ SportAIDS ambassador, Frank Bhunu, said they were happy with the competition and the establishment of the gala in partnership with the SportAIDS Project.

“This is the third edition of the gala, there was quite a lot of competition from the young professional athletes. We faced some financial challenges so we could not have the volleyball competition.

“This year we partnered with the SportAIDS project to disseminate information to young people,” said Bhunu.
Speaking just before the galas started, UZ SportsAIDS ambassador and spokesperson, Clarissa Regede, said the SportAIDS Project aims to contribute in the reduction of HIV incidence among the youths through sport.

“The SportAIDS Project aims to contribute to the reduction of HIV incident among the youths through engagement of young people in various sporting activities as a vehicle of social and behaviour change and peace building.

“The project has deliberately targeted the youths because they are a link to the larger community and are the future of Zimbabwe.
“While a lot has been done in educating the youths about HIV and AIDS, we believe that knowledge gained is not useful if not practised,” said Regede.