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Ellina Mhlanga Harare Bureau
A NEW sporting discipline of paragliding is set to be introduced sometime this year in Zimbabwe in an effort to promote sports tourism in Nyanga and the rest of the Eastern Highlands. This comes after a group of aviation sport enthusiasts decided to form the Paragliding Association of Zimbabwe to bring sport tourism to Nyanga and the rest of the scenic Eastern Highlands.

Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders, lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing comprising a large number of interconnected baffled cells.

The Paragliding Association of Zimbabwe is already in the process of getting a recognition letter from the Sports Commission for them to apply to the Federation Aeronautique Internationale for permission to bring in participants from other countries.

The sport will see interested pilots from different countries coming to Zimbabwe to compete in the sport.

One of the sport’s pioneers in Zimbabwe, Lawrence Madamombe, said the idea is to promote sports tourism in accordance with the government’s ZimAsset initiative and their target group are foreigners.

“We’re supposed to get a letter of recognition from the Sports Commission and it’s a requirement from the FAI. We get a letter from the Commission and then we apply to the Federation Aeronautique Internationale so that we can bring people from outside the country to paraglide in Zimbabwe.

“It’s like motor racing’s Formula One, you bring your own equipment and we’ll have people coming in to compete and go as part of sports tourism,” said Madamombe.

In a letter to the Sports Commission, Madamombe indicated that they would like to develop worldclass sites in Nyanga.

Madamombe has toured India’s paragliding clubs and trained with one of them and he said they are in talks with one of the clubs to relocate here during their off monsoon season and help set up the sites and train locals.