The Sunday Mail
Ray Bande in MUTARE
MANICALAND Province yesterday wrote its own piece of history after amassing a total of 12 gold medals to win this years’ Zimbabwe National Youth Games for the first time since the inception of the annual multi sports discipline event in 2003.
The curtain came down on the 13th edition of the Zimbabwe National Youth Games in Mutare, where participants from the country’s 10 provinces converged for the games since last Saturday.
Apart from the gold medals, the south eastern border province also garnered five silver medals and eight bronze medals to collect a total of 25 medals.
Of the 12 gold medals collected by Manicaland, 11 of them were from athletics while the 12th medal came from tennis.
Harare Province, which had its volleyball girls’ as well as the boys’ and girls’ soccer teams disqualified during the course of the games owing to non-payment of affiliation fees, came in second with a total of 34 medals, nine gold, 16 silver and nine bronze medals.
Mashonaland East settled for third position with eight gold medals, nine silver and seven bronze medals to make a total of 24 while Masvingo Province, in fourth position finished with eight gold medals, three silver and five bronze medals to make a total of 16.
In fifth position was Mashonaland West Province, which amassed a total of 31 medals — seven gold medals, six silver, and 18 bronze while Matabeleland South settled for sixth position with six gold medals, three silver and bronze to make a total of 12 medals.
Bulawayo was seventh with a total of five gold medals, 16 silver and 13 bronze medals to make a total of 34 medals.
Mashonaland Central and Matebeleland North came eighth and ninth respectively, while Midlands was at position number 10.
The 2013 edition of the National Youth Games was a success save for the disqualification of teams from Harare and Matabeleland South owing to their failure to pay $80 affiliation fees per each affiliate.
The next edition of the games will be held in Mashonaland West Province.
