From SHAMAOMA MUSONDA In Bulawayo –
FIVE Zambian runners yesterday stormed the finals of the 200 metres race in morning heats before the rains scuttled the afternoon sessions at the ongoing 2014 African Union Sports Commission (AUSC) Region Five Youth Games in Zimbabwe.
A day after a rather disappointing day where even Nanjing Youth Olympics champion Sydney Siame failed to reap a gold medal in the 100 metres dash, all Zambians who went on the track managed to make the final which takes place this afternoon at the White City Sports Arena.
The five, who made the finals, are Siame and Brian Kasinda in the boys’ category with the girls being Abigail Chongo, Marjory Chisenga and Abigail Sepiso.
Siame, who finished second in the 100 metres final for the silver, was not in a compromising mood this time as he won his heat while Kasinda, a bronze medalist from the 100 metres, was third in his heat but posted a good time to make the final.
Coach Kezzias Nyendwa was left frustrated after a heavy downpour disrupted proceeding for the second time in the three days of the games here.
Nyendwa said: “The problem is that this will be dropping the tempo of the athletes” but was optimistic that it would not change the focus of his athletes.
Nyendwa’s athletes have so far reaped four medals with Joseph Sinkala getting a gold in high jump after clearing a height of 2.2 meters, a silver from Siame and two bronze medals from Kasinda and Chisenga.
This brought the number of medals won here to 14, five of them being gold.
Meanwhile, Sports Permanent Secretary Agnes Musunga has said Zambia is getting ready for multiple gold medal wins at major international events like the All-Africa Games, Commonwealth and Olympic Games.
Speaking after she watched boxing, football and swimming within three hours of arrival at the AUSC Region Five Youth Games on Wednesday, Musunga said the performance of the budding athletes here showed Zambia’s sports development was on the right track.
“When you hear this when you are home, you cannot take it serious, but I have just watched the boxers win two gold medals and a silver and the performance there was high class, and the game the footballers played against Lesotho (4-0 win), it was totally world class.
“The football from the boys was of high quality and it is a shame that these games are not being televised back home for all the people to see just how good the football team and all athletes are doing here,” she said.
When praising the Hector Chilombo coached football team, Musunga talked about the statistics which showed that from the three group games, Zambia won all three, scoring 12 times and conceding just once and that goal coming through a penalty.
She said with a contingent of just 59 athletes and that includes a team sport, minting of 14 medals so far was impressive and encouraging to the ministry as Zambia gets ready for the 2015 All-Africa Games in Congo Brazzaville.
Musunga also said there were important facts to note from the boxing and judo teams where all ten athletes from the two disciplines have managed a medal, four of them gold.
Flanked by director of Sport, Bessy Chelemu and her deputy Gibson Muyaule, who is also delegation leader, Musunga said that Zambia had a lot of talent at youth level who can compete at any international.
“All we need now is to harness this talent so that if we talk about the All-Africa Games, this is the team to look to so that they develop further so they are ready for the forthcoming Olympics and as well as the Commonwealth Games, we have a team that will keep improving,” she said.
She regretted Zambians were not watching the games live as was the case in Lusaka where Government apart from selling the rights to Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation also engaged Supersport to allow other participating countries watch their athletes in action.
But that is not the situation here where only Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation has exclusive rights and is not showing the games outside the country.