Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe team for the annual Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa (Cossasa) athletics competition set to be held in Namibia is expected to go into camp at Northlea High School early next month. Zimbabwe, who are the defending champions following a top notch performance in the last version of these games in Lesotho last year, will have 46 Under-17 and 38 Under-13 athletes, according to Arthur Maphosa, the vice president of the National Association of School Heads (Nash), an association of both primary and secondary school heads.
“We go into camp on May 1 at Northlea High School and hope to be there up until May 10 when we leave for Namibia, three days before the Games start. This will give our athletes ample time to acclimatise,” said Maphosa who is also the Gwanda High School headmaster.
The Games will run from May 13-14 and Team Zimbabwe, according to Maphosa, returns home on May 15. “As the defending champions we’re more than eager to defend our prized possession but we expect stiff competition from Botswana who’ve very good athletes,” said Maphosa.
Five countries took part in last year’s competition but the figure will go up to six this year with the coming in of Botswana, who missed last year’s meet due to some internal problems.
The other participants are Namibia, Lesotho, Zambia and Swaziland.
The technical team will be headed by Philip Chikomwe who is the head in charge of athletics in the National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) while seasoned athletics coach Lisimati Phakamile is the head coach.
He will be assisted by Briad Nhubu, Silas Muringani, Phanos Mugura and Lilian Chidiriro.