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SRC to announce Team Zimbabwe for All-Africa Games today

Sport
THE Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) is today expected to announce a provisional Team Zimbabwe for the 11th edition of the All-Africa Games to be held in Congo-Brazzaville from September 4-19.

THE Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) is today expected to announce a provisional Team Zimbabwe for the 11th edition of the All-Africa Games to be held in Congo-Brazzaville from September 4-19.

BY HENRY MHARA

SRC said they were announcing the team four months prior to the games to give athletes enough time to prepare and market themselves.

They said the announcement was the first step towards their preparations, vowing they would “critically assess the performance of those teams and athletes”, and that only the best would make the trip to Brazzaville.

Zimbabwe will be represented in different sport codes including athletics, men’s rugby sevens, cycling, swimming, gymnastics, karate, lawn tennis and Sport for People with Disabilities which have direct entries to the Games.

The Young Warriors have also qualified for the Games.

“In the case a particular sport code’s performance does not match continental standards, the Management Committee will not hesitate to drop those sport code unless if there is strong justification like the athletes being groomed for future games, otherwise this is not a sport for all platform. We only need the best,” SRC communications manager Tinashe Nheweyembwa said.

Nheweyembwa said the SRC was currently in a process to raise resources for the team, with at least $700 000 required.

He urged corporates to help in this regard.

“The African Games provide a unique opportunity for the companies which may be considering making forays into the continent and beyond for their products will be exposed to a wide audience since the whole of Africa would have converged in Congo-Brazzaville for the Games,” Nheweyembwa said.

Meanwhile, the SRC has appointed the Team Management for Team Zimbabwe and it is headed by SRC director sport development Joseph Muchechetere as the chef de mission.

Muchechetere will be deputised by Zimbabwe Karate Union boss Joe Rugwete.

Seasoned swimming technical official Kathy Lobby will head the technical side of the team.

“In the three, we have highly experienced sport administrators who are going to be complimented by team managers and coaches whom we believe will raise the bar this year so that we may get to be in the top 10 during the competitions.

“Our performance during the past All-Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique, in 2011 was not good enough and we definitely need to raise the bar and be counted among the best in the continent and it starts by having the best brains in the leadership of the team,” Nheweyembwa added.