Zimbabwe sprinter and former Junior Sports Person of the Year Nelton Ndebele is set to establish an athletics club to scout for talent in secondary schools in Bulawayo and arrange scholarships to South Africa and the US.
Report by Sports Reporter The athlete, who specialises in 400m events, yesterday told NewsDay Sport of his plans to harness talent at grassroots level.
“I am planning to approach schools in Bulawayo where I can get a central training ground where we can get athletes from the schools taking part in races”
If the athletes get good times, I am planning to help them secure scholarships in South Africa and the United States of America,” he said.
Ndebele said he was embarking on the project as a way of giving back to the community.
“I am based in South Africa ,but I will be coming here often to scout for talent with the help of my coach Hennie Kotze. We will then recommend some athletes to Ghana sprint coach Miles Mills who is in America and also recommend other athletes to South African universities.”
“I feel that I have been running for some time now so I want to help the youngsters who are interested in athletics to take up the sport and use the contacts I have built,” he said.
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Ndebele has represented Zimbabwe in various international events, and was part of the All Africa Games team in Mozambique last year.
He was a member of the Zimbabwe 4x400m relay team which brought bronze from the 2007 All-Africa Games held in Algeria.
Ndebele is studying Psychology at the University of Pretoria where he trains with Tuks Club.
Before moving to South Africa, he stayed in Namibia and trained with Winners Athletics Club after an invitation from coach Seun Karuba whom he had met during the Permit Meetings which featured Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana.
His comments come after US-based Lewis Banda spoke of similar dreams as the bid to resuscitate athletics — once the second most popular sport in Zimbabwe — gathers momentum.
The sport has been killed by lack of visible leadership from the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe.
