South Africa dominated the Confederation of African Athletics Southern Region Youth Championships which took place at the National Sports Stadium yesterday, winning a total of 37 medals.
The South Africans, who won gold almost in all disciplines on offer, still had an opportunity to increase their tally as they were favourites to dominate two more events which were held late, yesterday the mens discus throw and the womens long jump.
However, no country had a chance to catch up with them as they had taken an unassailable lead with 18 gold, 15 silver and four bronze.
Zimbabwe, who were expected to do better considering they were the hosts, finished in second place with 12 medals, consisting of just one gold, eight bronze and three silver medals. Namibia finished in third place with three silver and five bronze medals while Mauritius had one gold and two bronze medals.
Zambia had two gold medals courtesy of promising middle distance runner Friday Simusama who completed a double in the mens 1 500m and 3 000m event.
Lesotho had one silver and one bronze with the Seychelles going home with two bronze medals while Mozambique managed a lone bronze medal. Zimbabwes only gold medal came from talented high jumper Takudzwa Muchichwa.
The Marondera High school student, who was clearly the star of the Zimbabwean team flew an impressive 2.02m while his nearest rival Kevin Mieze of Namibia settled for the silver medal after in 1.92m.
The other good performances from the local athletes came from Buhle Geza who won a silver and bronze in the 100 and 200m respectively while Daniel Ncube also had silver and bronze in the 1 500 and 300m respectively.
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Zimbabwe coach Phakamile Lisimati, said he was happy with his team performance considering that most of them were competing in a regional event for the first time.
