Gold Coast inspiration

AS THE Commonwealth Games unfold, with Zimbabwe outside looking in, the story of an 11-year-old Welsh athlete who is doing business at Gold Coast 2018 is inspiring some local teenagers.

Anna Hursey from Cardiff is representing Wales in table tennis and her story has Zimbabwe’s top-ranked table tennis players, the 14-year-old Tinotenda Fambira and 18-year-old Isheanesu Siringwani dreaming big.

“Her story is inspiring, it shows that age is not a barrier,” said Siringwani who is the country’s number one ranked female player.

“In the build-up to the games she was training like 30 hours a week, I guess I need to add more hours to my training.

“I train three hours daily and I am home schooled so I have the time to put in some extra hours into my training regime. Siringwani has her sights set on the International students’ convention in the United States of America in June. I qualified for the US tourney after coming second at the All-Africa Students Convention in South Africa last year. It always feels great getting a chance to represent your country and my wish is to keep on improving that I will get to hoist the country’s flag at international tournaments,” she said.

For Fambira, basic play has put him atop the rankings and he does not plan to change anything.

“Our training and hard work is giving us the results. There is emphasis on playing the basic game, ball control is more important and I am in no mood to fix what is working,” he said.

The Goromonzi High Form Two student believes with more corporate sponsorship he can also make international headlines like the 11 –year-old Hursey. “If you look where she comes from, sport is well supported. In Zimbabwe we are not really getting support.

“Hopefully, things will get better and Zimbabwe will once again compete at the Commonwealth Games,” he said.