•L-R: Sprinters Sydney Siame, Hazemba Chindamba (with flag), Brian Kasinda and Titus Kafunda after winning bronze in the 4x100m relay at the CAA Senior Championship in South Africa. Picture courtesy of
Gerald Phiri’s Instagram

By Adrian Mwanza –

FRESH from minting a bronze medal in the 4x100m relay at the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) senior championship in Durban, South Africa, the Zambian youngsters head to Poland next month for the IAAF world junior athletics championships.
The IAAF has invited four Zambian juniors to take part in the Poland meet.
The Zambia Amateur Athletics Association (ZAAA) has picked Brian Kasinda, Sydney Siame, Hazemba Chindamba and Daniel Mbewe.
Kasinda, Siame and Chindamba were all part of the Zambia 4x100m relay team that finished third in South Africa at the continental senior championship in Durban.
Zambia returned from Durban with a gold medal won by Kabange Mupopo in the 400m race and the bronze by the relay team.
Siame made the 200m final but up against seasoned senior campaigners on the continent, he finished sixth.
The IAAF world junior championship is slated for Poland and will run from July 18 to July 24.
Zambia junior coach Sydney Mushipi said the four were ready, and highlighted the three that proved themselves at the CAA senior championships.
Mushipi said Siame would take part in the 200m race while Kasinda would compete in both the 100m and 200m categories. Chindamba would only compete in the 100m category.
Siame, renowned for winning a gold medal at the World Youth Olympics two years ago in the 100m dash, has lately been competing in the 200m class.
It looks like a ZAAA strategy to protect the boy who has been attracting too much attention for results even at senior level when he is just 18 years old.
“We have a good team and they can get medals out there in Poland. They did well in South Africa where they minted bronze in the 4x100m relay, which was a great achievement,” he said.
And sprinter Kasinda, who is expected back in the country from South Africa today with the rest of Team-Zambian that were in South Africa, said the experience was good and was happy to have a bronze medal.
Kasinda says he is looking forward to the world junior championships in Poland where his target is a gold medal.
“My focus at the moment is to win a medal at the championships next month because we have done adequate preparations,” he said.