BULAWAYO will host this year’s edition of the Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa (Cossasa) ball games scheduled for August 26-30.
GRACE CHIRANGANDE
The games will come to Bulawayo just three days after the curtain would have come down at the 13th edition of the Zimbabwe National Youth Games to be hosted by Manicaland from August 15-23.
National Association of Secondary Heads (Nash) vice-president Arthur Maphosa said preparations for the Cossasa games were going o smoothly.
“Preparations for the games are at an advanced stage. We are now done with the accreditation of teams and the final national team selection was done at the Arenel Under-17 football tournament that was held in Harare on Friday.
“Team Zimbabwe will go on camp on August 15 as part of their preparations at Northlea High School in Bulawayo,” he added.
Maphosa said Bulawayo City Council has availed facilities which were refurbished for the African Union Sports Council Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games, hosted by the City of Kings in December last year.
“The city fathers have allowed us to use Barbourfields and White City for the tournament. For basketball, Girls High School authorities have allowed us to stage our tournament at there,” Maphosa added.
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He added: “So far the confirmed teams are Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland and we are yet to hear from the rest of the expected countries.”
Athletes will battle it out in Sevens rugby (boys only Under-17), tennis (all age groups boys and girls), basketball (boys and girls Under-17), football (boys and girls), and netball (girls only Under-13 and Under-17).
Competitions such as the Stella Tea for netball were used to select teams to represent the country in the ball games.
Countries which are active in the Cossasa are Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe while those that have not participated in the games for a long time are Angola, Mozambique, Seychelles and South Africa.
Last year’s edition of the competition was held in Zambia and Zimbabwe finished second after Botswana. Zimbabwe did not send a full complement of athletes to Zambia due to financial constraints.
