75 medals for Zim Cossasa team
ZIMBABWE maintained the momentum at the Confederation of Schools Sport Associations of Southern Africa Athletics Championships as they had amassed 75 medals by yesterday as the event entered day two.
The hosts are proving too good for their opponents at the National Sports Stadium.
Zimbabwe, who are the defending champions had 28 gold medals, 20 silver and 27 bronze.
On second position were Namibia with 57 medals — 16 gold, 27 silver and 14 bronze — while Botswana followed on third place with 36 medals consisting of 11 gold, an equal number of silver and 14 bronze.
Malawi, who missed first day of competition, had just one gold medal on their first day of competing.
The championships were officially opened by the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Lazarus Dokora yesterday.
Dokora paid tribute to Cossasa for their efforts to develop talent within the region and noted the importance of schools in sport development.
“I find the caption to your games logo, ‘Spot The Talent’ quite relevant. Modern education theories and practices concur that’s schools and centres of learning must go out of their way to spot individual talent in each learner.
“They must help learners to develop competences uniquely peculiar to the individual learner to achieve successful learning outcomes.
“How many schools manage to spot talent and nurture it properly especially in sport? How many students in the school system have talent that go unnoticed or are wasted?
“I salute organisations that are able to identify talent and make it blossom. I believe Cossasa is one such organisation,” said Dokora.
The Primary and Secondary Education minister said the new curriculum will go a long way in promoting sport as it has become an important part of the schools system.
“The updating of the school curriculum in Zimbabwe has raised the stakes on the importance of sport in our education system.
“In the updated curriculum in our country today no longer is sport just an appendage on the sidelines of what was erroneously regarded as the so called “main subjects,” which were really academic pursuits.
“The old curriculum focused on these academic subjects in the main and relegated practical disciplines as well as the arts and sport to optionals or what was euphemistically called: extra-curricular activities,” said Dokora.
Cossasa president, Johnson Madhuku said they were grateful to their member countries for investing in sport and acknowledgement they are getting from the Africa Union Sports Council Region Five.
The three-day meet ends today.