The Sunday Mail
Lack of proper sport structures cost Team Zimbabwe pole position at the just-ended Africa Union Sports Council Region V Under-20 Games, chef de mission, Sebastian Garikai has said.
Zimbabwe came second at the 10-day tournament that ended last week in Bulawayo with a total of 94 medals of which 18 were gold, 41 silver and 35 bronze.
South Africa amassed 121 medals with 64 being gold.
While South Africa has at least five professionally run academies in their provinces, Garikai said he could not point at any that can be identified in Zimbabwe.
“The results posted by the team were impressive but at the same time we aimed for first position.
“South Africa had an edge over us on the fact that their structures seem to be in place.
“They have more than five academies in each province.
“In this country if you ask me to point at one properly run sports academy I will say maybe there is none,” Garikai said.
“We need to go back to the drawing board. For the first time we had testing and measuring done with all the athletes that were involved with Team Zimbabwe.
“And I can tell you that we have lots of potential. But we need to channel that potential towards academies that will focus the energy and the skills that these athletes have towards the gold podium,” added Garikai.
Before the AUSC Region V Games began, athletes faced challenges in accessing training facilities which are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing .
Garikai said there was need to have all those facilities developed in Bulawayo to be used as centres of excellence for elite athletes.
“All those within the range of qualifying for regional and international competitions should be able to access these facilities free of charge with their coaches.
“Now that renovations are over, I am sure the Ministry of Sport (Arts and Culture) and Local Government, Public Works and National Housing will work out a solution to this impasse so that our athletes could access these facilities maybe free or at a nominal charge so we could progress in sport as a country.
Like other countries, Garikai said Zimbabwe needs to look at sport as a means of employment or of earning a living.
“At the moment people think sport is social, that it’s something done after work. Yet with the results that athletes posted, we can only see that it’s a way of life,” Garikai added.
With the African Games formerly known as the All Africa Games set for Congo Brazzaville in September next year, Garikai added that preparations need to be stepped up early.
“People that will be appointed to head these games have to take it seriously and as a full time commitment. They have to go and get previous All Africa Games results and do comparative schedules with the results that our local athletes are posting at the moment.
“Also we don’t need to shut down doors on Zimbabweans participating outside the country.
“Whether they are in Australia or the US, if they are Zimbabwean by birth holding, a Zimbabwean passport, they need to come and compete for their country,”
Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Andrew Langa thanked Government for bankrolling the AUSC Region V Games.
“These games are meant to develop our youths. We have a list of those who participated and who excelled, we will track them as a ministry to ensure that we develop them,”Langa said.
$12 million was released towards infrastructural refurbishment while $3,6 million catered for operational costs.
