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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE National Association for Secondary Heads (Nash) will add three Paralympics events to their 2017 athletics programme.

Arthur Maphosa, Nash vice-president, said the move is part of their drive to fight against discrimination of pupils living with disabilities.

He said Nash would soon inform schools to include the three additional disciplines that will be decided after a meeting to be held soon.

“The major activity in our first term calendar is athletics and this time around we will have an additional three Paralympics events to our calendar. We expect these additional competitions to be held from inter-house competitions up to the national finals, which will be held at Lomagundi College, Mashonaland West in March,” said Maphosa.

“The additional Paralympics events will bring more excitement to our programme and we will also be doing our part to fight against discrimination of pupils living with disabilities. In the past, children living with disabilities used to have competitions on their own, but now we’re bringing them together with their able bodied compatriots so that they mix and mingle, while they develop into better athletes.”

He said athletes, both able bodied and those living with disabilities, that excel at the national finals at Lomagundi College from March 30-31 will represent the country at the —Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa (Cossasa) Athletics Championships.

Zimbabwe are the defending Cossasa athletics champions and will play host to the regional competition in Harare in April.

Maphosa challenged schools to start their preparations early, saying they expect inter-house competitions to be completed by February 17.

“We want to defend our Cossasa title and that requires our athletes to have adequate preparations. The inter-house competitions should be done by February 17, with cluster events set to be held from February 23-24, while zonal competitions have been slated for March 2-3. The provincial competitions, according to our calendar, are set for March 16-17, with the national finals being the stage for selection of Zimbabwe’s Cossasa team,” Maphosa said.

@ZililoR