Cash rewards for Games medalists

Sport
BY ALBERT MARUFU TEAM Zimbabwe for the 10th All Africa Games to be held in Maputo, Mozambique, have been promised incentives for winning medals.

The country will be taking part in 17 sporting disciplines — athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, chess, cycling, football, judo, karate, netball, sailing, sports for people with disability, swimming, table tennis, lawn tennis, taekwondo and triathlon at the Games, that runs from September 3 to 18.

Team Zimbabwe chef de mission Custom Kachambwa said they were targeting at least 37 medals this time after winning 23 medals at the last edition of the Games held in Algeria in 2007.

“We are targeting at least 12 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze medals. This time our athletes are better prepared than the last edition where we won 23 medals – (seven gold, eight silver and as many bronze medals).

“We have come up with financial incentives. A gold medalist is entitled to US$500 with a silver medalist will get US$250. A bronze medalist stands to get US$125 and I am sure our athletes are better prepared than the last time for the games. This is not much but I am sure it will go a long way in motivating the athletes,” he said.

Kachambwa expressed satisfaction at he way preparations for the games were going, but expressed disappointment at the preparations of the martial arts disciplines of judo, karate and taekwondo.

“Athletics has a better prospect of winning a medal for us as we are looking at athletes such as Ngoni Makusha and Brian Dzingai. Makusha has been doing very well of late while Dzingai has also matured after failing to win a medal by a whisker at the 2008 Olympic Games.

“In swimming, apart from Kirsty Coventry, there are a number of swimmers such as Samantha Welch and James Lawson who have now got much exposure. The basketball team is also preparing well as they are already in South Africa from where they will join the rest of the team in Mozambique while the Mighty Warriors were in Germany recently.”

“Preparations for the martial arts disciplines have been rather dodgy as the athletes have not got much exposure,” he said.

The bulky of the Zimbabwe team goes into camp at Belvedere Teachers College on Tuesday, but leaves for Maputo on August 31.

Athletes such as Coventry, herself a winner of seven gold medals in Algeria, Makusha and Dzingai will not be part of the squad that goes into camp as they can only join the team in Mozambique.

The Mighty Warriors, who recently won the Cosafa Cup after beating South Africa, have already gone into camp.