THE past year was somewhat successfully for most sports disciplines while it was the usual squabbles for others at the expense of sports development and winning medals at international tournaments.
As we start the New Year, it would be imperative for all associations to take stock of their performance in 2014 as that would greatly help them move forward this year – a year that would be vital for most disciplines.
This year will see most associations getting busy with various competitions in their bid to qualify their athletes for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) looks to be the busiest among them.
FAZ did well last year with all the teams that entered various competitions qualifying for the continental tournaments as well as at the World Cup.
The Shepolopolo qualified for the Africa Women Championship for their first time while history was made when the Under-17 girls team sealed a FIFA World Cup place in Costa Rica.
The Chipolopolo made their routine qualification to the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals with the Under-17 and 20 qualifying to the Africa Junior and Youth Championship respectively and the two sides will have a chance to qualify for the World Cup finals this year.
Netballers were among the record makers after finishing second at the Africa Netball Championship to seal a place at the Sydney 2015 World Cup to be held in August.
Judokas, swimmers and runners were among those who excelled winning medals at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Youth Olympics and Africa Union Sports Commission (AUSC) Region Five Games.
The Zambia Golf Union (ZGU) have another big year in which they will need to organise two Zambia Open Golf tournaments after successfully doing so last year and same for the Zambia Ladies Golf Union (ZLGU) continued to make positive strides.
The Zambia Cricket Union (ZCU) embarked on spreading the sport to all parts of the country and last year included Eastern and Southern Province on their list to join Lusaka, Copperbelt, North-Western and Northern Provinces.
It is expected that this year that programme will continue to reach the remaining provinces.
Others that did well include the Zambia Table Tennis Association (ZTTA) with their junior programme, Badminton Zambia (BZ), Handball Association of Zambia (HAZ) including those I would have not mentioned.
The onus this year will be to build on those positive strides recorded last year to even perform better this year.
Adequate preparations are needed for our athletes to continue performing well at the international stage.
It is hoped that other associations that spent much of their time fighting for positions will take a leaf from the performing sports disciplines and work towards improving their game.
Hope a solution will soon be found in Zambia Amateur Athletics Association (ZAAA) whose case is in court as well as the Zambia Martial Arts Federation (ZAMAF) embroiled in leadership wrangles.
Wishing you all a happy New Year and a prosperous 2015 sporting year, for comments: eliaschipepo@gmail.com