Mpondela explains athletes’ failure
By SPORTS REPORTER LACK of resources has largely contributed to the continued underperformance of Zam
athletes at high profile competitions like the Comnma oCnhwiseaolttih Games, says Zambia Amateur Athletics Association (ZAAA) president Elias Mpondela said the performance of the athletes at the just ended Commonwealth Games te(rCnaGti)onwaals Aassore-flection of how Athletics FederaF) to compete at Championships in s slated from Auin China based on onal performance international en. mateur Athletics AsZAAA) communicaternational relations vison Mung'ambata nd female 400m runMupopo were reprebia at the event. s received a wild card in the 200m race at Championship. The much investment had been put in. Speaking in an interview yesterday, the ZAAA chief said it was unfair to expect good results when the athletes were ill-prepared due to absence of funds.
He said for a long-time there had been an outcry by non-football disciplines for funding from government and other stakeholders, but still received negative responses. “It takes years and a lot of resources to prepare a medal athlete or team. When we look wild card is usually given to athletes that have been performing and do not go through the qualifying process.
“He is a junior athlete but his performance at World Challenge and other competitive tournaments has earned him the slot. Siame has greatly improved on time this year with his personal best being 10.18s,” he said.
He however said it would be too much to demand for medals from the two athletes when it will be their maiden appearance at such a big event. at the representation at the CG, they did not have competitive events as build-up to the event,
“For us we used our little resources to camp our athletes in South Africa, we never received any funding, and our athletes did better than any other discipline,” said Mpondela.
He noted that federations also had a role to play in the underperformance as they preferred sending officials at the expense of athletes to save money.
“Mupopo just started competing in international tournaments last year while Siame is a junior athlete, so it will be unfair to demand for medals. But we are positive that they will put up a good performance,” he said.
Siame last year claimed the title of the world fastest kid after he won gold at the Nanjing Youth Olympics clocking 10.56s.
In June, Siame was invited to participate in the World Challenge in Senegal where he finished fourth setting a new national record of 10:18s.
He said that the criteria of selection was also questionable, contributing to the failure.
“Federations too have a role to play, we have failed to tap into a wider market, hence recycling the same competitors. ZAAA makes sure athletes genuinely qualify according to the international standard time and taken the talent identification task seriously” he said.
He mentioned that ZAAA had not yet received the International Olympic Committee scholarship awarded to four athletes which would help tremendously to prepare for future international engagements.
Meanwhile, Mpondela was proud of his athletes’ performance and said storming the semis or final was no joke.
He encouraged the runners not to lose heart, but continue to work harder in readiness for forth-coming challenges.
“I feel the runners were equal to the task, Siame reached the 200m final while Quincy Malekani, who was competing at such a high profile event for the first time stormed the semis. We are on the right path, and definitely headed for a gold medal at the 2020 Olympics,” he said.