Zim in COSSASA medal haul
ZIMBABWE’S Under-17 and 13 teams flew the country’s flag high when they bagged several medals to clinch second place in the annual Confederation of Schools Sport of Southern Africa in Maseru, Lesotho, at the weekend.
The athletes brought back home six gold and two silver medals as they came second to Botswana despite failing to field teams in other sporting codes whose participants could not make the journey to Lesotho due to financial challenges.
Zimbabwe’s Under-17 boys and girls basketball teams both grabbed gold medals, as did their tennis counterparts.
The Under-13 boys tennis team and the Under-17 boys volleyball side also won gold while the Under13 boys rugby team and the netball sides weighed in with silver medals.
Zimbabwe’s head of delegation, Arthur Maphosa, who is also the NASH vice-president, expressed satisfaction with the way his charges went about their business in Maseru.
“I am particularly impressed by the fact we won silver in the overall rankings after Botswana.
“I was very impressed by the way our athletes went about their business. They were very confident and showed a lot of athleticism, outsmarting opponents at will in most of the situations.
“Had we competed in all the sport codes on offer at the jamboree, I am sure we would have won gold at the end of it all because of the zeal and enthusiasm among our athletes. “I would like to congratulate the athletes and Zimbabweans at large for the achievement as we look forward to the upcoming tournaments where we hope we to perform even better than what we have done,” he said.
Volleyball coach, Stanslous Muguto, who has guided the Under-17 team to five gold medals since 2012, said he is already looking forward to the 2018 edition of the tourney.
“I am happy that for the umpteenth time, we have won gold in volleyball again. We are not going to sit on our laurels as we will have to start preparing for next year,” he said.
Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, third-placed Namibia, Swaziland and hosts Lesotho took part in the sporting fiesta.
Namibia will now host the jamboree in 2018.