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Denzel Phiri of Matabeleland South clears his jump in the boys’ Under 16 high jump event in front of a packed audience at White City Stadium in Bulawayo on Thursday

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
HOSTS province, Bulawayo, won the National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) track and field athletics competition that ended at White City Stadium yesterday while Masvingo were the National Association of Primary School Heads (Naph) and joint Naph and Nash winners.

The one week long inaugural athletics meet that saw primary and secondary schools all compete at the same time for the first time, saw Bulawayo’s Nash provincial team coached by Mpopoma High School sports director James Rugwevera cruise to the winners’ podium with 18 gold, 11 silver and 17 bronze medals while Masvingo were two gold medals shy. They managed to get 20 silver and 19 bronze medals with Manicaland coming third with the same number of gold medals as Masvingo but were relegated to third place by an inferior silver medal haul of 18.

Unruly, Harare, who have been national champions for the past three years were fourth with 15 gold, 10 silver and 11 bronze medals. Harare refused to abide by the officials’ decision to disqualify their mixed relay team forcing the organisers to eventually abandon the event.

It was a giant leap by Bulawayo who were sixth at last year’s event in Mashonaland West when they managed to get just nine gold medals.

In the primary schools version, Masvingo collected 16 gold, 11 silver and eight bronze medals to relegate Harare into second place with a medal haul of 15 gold, nine silver and 10 bronze medals while on third place was Manicaland who got 14 gold, two silver and 11 bronze medals respectively.

On the overall medals table, Masvingo emerged winners with 32 gold, 31 silver and 27 bronze medals while Manicaland came second with 30 gold, 20 silver and 22 bronze medals and Harare settled for third with 30 gold, 19 silver and 21 bronze medals.

Bulawayo were heavily let down by their primary schools counterparts and eventually settled for fourth place with 21 gold medals, the same number of silver and 23 bronze medals respectively.

The meet ended in controversial fashion as besides the abandonment of the mixed relay event, Bulawayo province felt hard done in the 4x100M boys Under-18 event after their team was left out of the race with the race starter claiming the hosts province delayed fielding their starting athlete despite the other three athletes having been ushered into their positions.

The incident caused a delay of almost 10 minutes as the huge crowd that thronged White City Stadium threatened to invade the track and when the race eventually kicked off, some threw empty plastic bottles onto the track in protest.

After the competition a 100 member Confederation of Schools Sport Associations of Southern Africa (Cossasa) team that will represent Zimbabwe in Botswana was presented to the gathering.

The Botswana tournament will be held in May and Team Zimbabwe will go into camp at Northlea High School on April 28.

Medals table
Nash
Gold    Silver    Bronze
Bulawayo     18    11    17
Masvingo    16    20    19
Manicaland    16    18    11
Harare    15    10    11
Mash East    11    16    12
Mat South    11    14    17
Midlands    9    8    8
Mash West    9    7    7
Mat North    8    8    6
Mash Central    5    5    4

Naph
Masvingo    16    11    8
Harare    15    9    10
Manicaland    14    2    11
Mash West    12    12    15
Midlands    7    12    7
Mash East    7    10    3
Bulawayo    3    10    6
Mat South    2    3    5
Mash Central    1    8    9
Mat North    1    3    3

Joint Naph and Nash
Masvingo    32    31    27
Manicaland    30    20    22
Harare    30    19    21
Bulawayo    21    21    23
Mash West    21    19    22
Mash East    18    26    15
Midlands    16    20    15
Mat South    13    17    22
Mat North    9    11    9
Mash Central    6    13    13
@skhumoyo2000.