IT is back to the cliche of sending Zambian ‘tourists’ to major international sports competitions.
Zambia sent six athletes to the just-ended 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa and there were no surprises in terms of results – poor.
Only bantamweight boxer, Emmanuel Ngoma, salvaged some pride for Zambia by bagging a bronze medal while the other five athletes, despite others bettering their personal best times, failed to get to the winners’ podium.
At the ongoing All-Africa Games (AAG) in Congo Brazzaville, a similar pattern of results is already taking shape.
Like I said last Sunday, I don’t think Zambian athletes can manage a clean sweep but only pick up a few medals.
Already the handballers have been consigned to the AAG’s scrapheap, joining six boxers and swimmers who got ejected early in Brazzaville.
However, 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, Ben Muziyo, managed to give Zambia some hope by winning a bronze.
It was quite a disappointing performance by the boxers despite promising silverware before departure.
With somewhat haphazard preparations, the boxers still showed promise in the build-up to the AAG by sweeping eight medals at a regional tournament in Mozambique.
But the results in Congo Brazzaville proved the opposite of Zambians’ expectations.
The women handball team’s performance was equally disastrous, losing 10-51 to DR Congo in the first match before being humbled by Ivory Coast 16-49.
As for the swimmers, there was also some hope for medals but the Zambian envoys, despite some of them reaching the finals, still ended empty-handed.
So now the onus will be on the judokas, runners and the paralympians to redeem the nation’s shattered pride at the 11th pan-African Games.
It is embarrassing to the nation for the same tired song of failure to be sung at every international sports forum.
The onus, therefore, is on all sports associations with support from the Sports Council of Zambia and National Olympic Committee to come up with viable developmental programmes that can produce world beaters.
In the past, there has been less investment in talent identification programmes by various sports associations.
It is not only about mostly the Olympic sports but even disciplines like football where Zambia is still lacking in terms of having many goal-getters.
This was evidenced in the Chipolopolo’s two international games last week – an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Kenya and a friendly with Gabon.
Issues of going to the drawing board for Zambian sport should not suffice this time around since nothing tangible has ever come out from those ‘boardrooms’.
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