Danhiko Paralympic Games surpassed expectations: Majonga

FOLLOWING another successful edition of the annual Danhiko Paralympic Games that ended on Sunday, the organising committee chairperson Godfrey Majonga says the event continues to surpass their expectations every year.

This year marked the 29th edition of the Games that began in 1988 and Jairos Jiri Kadoma emerged as overall winners on Sunday as the curtain came down on the three-day event.

Majonga attributed the success of the Games to First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe for her support and said the annual competition has been growing in leaps and bounds.

“This edition, we have been celebrating 29 years of Danhiko Annual Paralympic Games. We started in 1988 and have been going strong since.

“But, of course, we always give credit to the First Lady that she joined, she became Patron of Danhiko and Danhiko Paralympic Games 20 years ago, which we also celebrate with this edition.

‘’She has helped the Games grow in leaps and bounds.

“And the profile has just reached even across our borders, we have been having a team from Zambia, a team from Botswana and so on,” said Majonga.

Although this year, the foreign teams could not make it, over 2 000 participants from 114 local teams competed in the Games.

Majonga noted that not only have the numbers been growing but there has been a lot of improvement on the competition side.

Participants have the opportunity to compete in athletics, goal ball, wheelchair basketball, netball, soccer, five-a-side soccer, wheelchair tennis, slalom and swimming at the Games.

“One big point that has been brought up time after time by people is that we don’t promote them enough. We don’t publicise them enough, so maybe that’s an area we need to really work on as organisers.

“We have also seen the National Paralympic Games increasing the disciplines that people are participating in and we are hoping to do the same, at least add one or two such as chess maybe and we see as we go, maybe table tennis.

“Those are the areas that we think we can do on a small scale, we are not as big as the National Paralympic Games,” added Majonga.

Majonga also saluted their traditional sponsors such as Delta, Schweppes and NetOne as well as PPC and Dairibord Zimbabwe who came on board this year.

Federation of Organisations of Disabled People in Zimbabwe national chairperson, Watson Khupe, hailed Amai Mugabe for supporting sports for people living with disabilities and said it’s an important tool that can bring a positive change.

“Sport can be a vehicle to achieve many good things, including the well-being of persons with disabilities.

‘’Sport, when properly planned and managed, can be used as a potent tool to fight marginalisation, exclusion and discrimination against persons with disabilities,” said Khupe.