adminThe competition begins on Saturday and will run until 22 December.
Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo Brazzaville, DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe are the 15 countries which have confirmed participation.
The institutions of higher learning from the continent will participate in athletics, soccer, netball, basketball, volleyball, swimming, karate, tennis, table tennis and chess.
Zimbabwe however is sending only six athletes who will participate in the track and field events.
Vongai Chamunorwa, Fotunate Dlakama and Kudzai Lukani will participate in the 5km race while Fredman Moyo and Clive Mbewe will participate in high jump and hurdles with Tendai Mafemera representing the country in javelin.
Athletics team manager Olivert Guvuriro and Liberty Maidza who is the President of ZUSA are the officials that will accompany the team.
Maidza expressed confidence in the team saying he had no reason to doubt that they will do the country proud despite the fact that they were few.
“Most of the athletes we are taking to Namibia did us proud in the CUCSA Games in July and I am sure they will not let us down even though they are far less than the 42 athletes we were supposed to take initially,” Maidza said.
He said they were taking fewer athletes because many of those that were supposed to participate were writing examinations.
“We are appealing to the relevant governing bodies to work on synchronising our university calendar because it is doing a lot of damage to colleges sport. You find that sometimes when we need to do sport some of the students will still be writing exams as is the case now.
“We need a revision of the calendar so that sport can be administered in a proper manner,” he said.
The Games were initially scheduled for Dakar, Senegal in September but they pulled out at the last minute citing their unpreparedness to host the Games hence the postponement of the date as well as the change of venue to Namibia.
Online Reporter