SPORTING facilities in the Midlands province earmarked at hosting the 2018 national Youth Games have passed with distinction following a tour at various centres by Sports Commission. The tour was conducted together with other sporting stakeholders.

Representatives from Government, the Sports Commission, 10 provinces and other sporting stakeholders toured the sporting facilities in Gweru, where they have converged for the review and preparatory meeting of the 2018 Games. After touring the sporting facilities in Gweru, Sports Commission acting director-general Patience Kabanda expressed her confidence with the province’s preparedness for the annual Games. “We are pleasantly surprised by the standards of the sporting facilities in Gweru. They are more than good enough to host the Games.

‘’Even minority sports, there are venues to cater for that. Gweru has the capacity to host all the 22 sporting disciplines it does not need the intervention of other towns in the province to be able to host. Even in terms of accommodation there is no problem. The experts of the sporting disciplines will even be spoilt for choice on which venues to use. There are schools that have grounds to host all the disciplines and I am happy to tell you that we are very excited with what we have seen,” said Kabanda.

Meanwhile, the Government has pledged to support various sporting disciplines in nurturing talented athletes into becoming world class sports personalities that will fly the country’s flag high in future. The death of academies has been attributed as the main Achilles Heel of Zimbabwe’s poor performance in many sporting disciplines.

“We are doing something to nurture those athletes that did well in Hwange this year,’’ Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture Minister Makhosini Hlongwane said while addressing participants at the National Youth Games general assembly meeting in Gweru yesterday. We want to continuously nurture them, we do not want a situation where they showcase their talent. If athletes have shown promise at a young age they must not be left to venture in other unproductive trades like illegal mining, for example, we must continue working to improve them. I can assure you that we are doing something to nurture those who did well. It should actually be a continuous process where they continue to develop.’’