Adios Region Five Youth Games

20 Dec, 2014 - 00:12 0 Views

The Sunday News

THE 2014 AUSC Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games than ran from 4 December ended last Sunday. And through this page, which was dedicated to the Games before and during the course of the regional youth sporting showcase, we say ADIOS.

Team Zimbabwe you did us proud by amassing a total of 93 medals, which translate to 18 gold, 42 silver and 33 bronze. Only our detractors can say we were not a potent force as the hosts of this sporting showcase. But, as neighbourly as we have been as a country, we also say congratulations to South Africans for scooping a whooping 64 gold medals, 35 silver and 22 bronze, a total of 121 medals.

Now the challenge is really on us as a nation to find solutions on how to beat South Africa to their game come the 2016 version of the games in Angola.

As a country let us immediately concentrate on finding out why South Africa are better than us in swimming and in both track and field in athletics. The netball team was a good example of how with a little bit of seriousness, dedication and hard work, we can beat the South Africans, by claiming gold in that discipline. But above all let’s use the advantage of the legacy that has been left by our hosting the Region 5 Youth Games, the stadia.

The games enabled much-needed renovations of Bulawayo’s major sports facilities, which now meet international standards. We are talking about White City Stadium, which boast of a world class athletics track and timer, and an equally state of the art netball venue, as well as improvements at BAC and at the Bulawayo Pool.

Let’s harness the corporate sector to bankroll competitive events at these venues lest they become white elephants like what we saw in the aftermath of the All Africa Games which we hosted in 1995. But it should, as well not be lost to us, and we should demand to know how the facilities would be maintained. We are still wary of what happened to Khumalo and Magamba Hockey Stadium after the All Africa Games.

In fact we should feel very much indebted to those at the National Athletics of Zimbabwe who presided over a triumphant athletics team which scooped 13 gold, 22 silver, and 19 bronze medals.

If there were any doubts about NAAZ’s investment in intensive training of coaches by taking advantage of the IAAF regional development centre in Kenya, then those were put to rest by our impressive showing at the recently ended games. NAAZ now boasts of qualified Level 3 and 4 coaches.

Finally the country should also be serious in coming up with genuine representatives sides in the most popular sport football. We don’t believe both the boys and girls teams at the games were truly representative of the talent which abounds in this country.

Above all thanks Team Zimbabwe for a relatively good show at the just ended games.

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