The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
THE 2017 National Youth Games are set to have 21 sporting codes following several changes made by the Sports and Recreation Commission.
The changes follow the adoption of the National Sports and Recreation Policy by Cabinet in August.
Makhosini Hlongwane, the Minister of Sport and Recreation announced the adoption of the policy would result in the reformatting of the National Youth Games.
The annual Youth Games previously only had eight sporting codes and the expansion is likely to see grassroots development impacting on a large number of sports.
SRC Bulawayo provincial co-ordinator, Sam Dzvimbu confirmed the new developments saying the new sports incorporated into the Youth Games include rugby, cricket, hockey, weightlifting, cycling, swimming, karate, golf, pool, darts, chess, table tennis and gymnastics.
The eight disciplines provincial teams have been battling in include football, netball, volleyball, tennis, boxing and athletics.
Dzvimbu said the changes are part of the Ministry of Sports and Recreation’s thrust to implement the national sports policy.
He said the clustering of sporting communities into schools, colleges, the uniformed services and community sports will also be applied to the Games which will now see each province sending four different teams to compete in their respective categories.
“Instead of sending one uniform team, the provinces will now send four teams to compete in the different clusters, when previously we would have had one team from Bulawayo going to represent the province in football, we are now going to have a schools teams, a colleges team, uniformed services team and community sports team.
“The changes are simply an implementation of the Sports Policy, they are strategies to achieve the goals outlined in the Sports Policy,” said Dzvimbu.
The age limit for the schools team was set at Under-18 while for the other clusters, players who are under 23 years would be eligible for selection.
Dzvimbu said the changes had been communicated to the provincial sports structures, colleges sports organisations, uniformed forces, National Association of Primary Heads and National Association of Secondary Heads to ensure that are prepared for next year when the changes become effective.
He said Matabeleland North will become the first province to host the games on that level.
Following the adoption of the Sports Policy by Government, Hlongwane said the guiding principle will broaden the scope of participation by all segments of society and the reformatting of the National Youth Games, will see sports and recreational festivals starting at ward level, which feed into district and subsequently national competitions @rasmthembo
