Youth Games hurdle won’t hinder AUSC participation

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Acting Sports Editor
THE postponement of this year’s Zimbabwe National Youth and Paralympics Games will not prevent the country from sending athletes to the eighth edition of the African Union Sports Council Region Five under-20 Youth Games in Gaborone, Botswana in December.

An outbreak of typhoid in Gweru, the host city for the Youth and Paralympics Games, saw the Government, through the relevant Ministry of Health and Child Care ordering the postponement of the competition, which has since been tentatively set for December.

“There is no need to fear anything. We will be able to send athletes to the AUSC Region Five Games. The team for Botswana competition was chosen a long time ago when the athletes were still Under-18s because we use different platforms to select our team and our Youth Games are mainly to assess those chosen, not necessarily to select,” said the Sports and Recreation Commission’s acting director general Joseph Muchechetere.

He said the country has already entered the team as it is done six months in advance.

“Actually, we have entered our team, it was entered in July which is six months in advance. You start by sending the team in figures and around March you send by name and by July you can make adjustments if they are injuries so we are definitely participating,” said Muchechetere.

The aims of the AUSC Region Five Games are to encourage young sports persons to develop towards stages where they can in future represent their nations and the whole region, enable young people from different member States to meet, mix and get to know each other, thereby developing the required community spirit and regional integration, develop a spirit of fair play, mutual respect and Olympism among young athletes of the region and to provide opportunities for countries of the region to unite in working on an agreed sports programme.

The inaugural games, held biannually, were hosted by Mozambique in 2004 while Zimbabwe played host in 2014 with the 2016 games going to Luanda, Angola.