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gold, seven silver and two bronze.
This was a far cry from the 23 medals – seven gold, eight silver and eight bronze – that the team won at the previous All-Africa Games which were held in Algiers, Algeria, four years ago.
At the Maputo Games, Zimbabwean athletes competed in 17 disciplines – athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, chess, cycling, judo, karate, netball, sailing, swimming, table tennis, lawn tennis, taekwondo, women’s soccer, triathlon and sports for people with disability.
And the team came short at these Games in terms of the total number of medals won, as they could not emulate the class of 2007 that harvested 27 medals.
Team Zimbabwe finished 11th in the medals table while neighbours South Africa were the overall winners of the Maputo Games with 156 medals comprising 61 gold, 55 silver and 41 bronze.
Despite having fewer participants in number compared to other countries, Team Zimbabwe could have hoped for better fortunes but most of the athletes failed to match their regional counterparts in their respective disciplines.
Zimbabwe got 11 of their 15 medals from the swimming competitions, yet they participated in 17 disciplines.
The swimming team deserves a pat on the back for their achievements while other disciplines would need to pull their socks up.
From the results in Maputo, it seems there hasn’t been much progress in terms of grooming new stars who should now be warming up for even more success stories at next year’s London Olympic Games.
This says a lot about the country’s sports development policies.
Once again swimmer Kirsty Coventry held the country’s flag high with excellent efforts in the pool which earned the country four of the six gold medals and a silver, to add to three more silver medals she won with Samantha Welch, Kirsten Lapham and Nicole Horn.
Rising tennis star Takanyi Garan’anga and chess master Robert Gwaze scooped the other gold medals for Zimbabwe. Besides, there were no major surprises.
As the team returns home, each association should make a close scrutiny of their operations and see where they are getting it wrong.
It is now time the Government through the Sports Commission takes positive steps to ensure that there is real progress on the ground so that by the time the next games come, Team Zimbabwe won’t be found wanting.
That having been said, congratulations to the team for their efforts.