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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
SPORTS associations will hold a technical meeting at Eveline High School next week to plan Bulawayo’s selection criteria for the Zimbabwe National Youth Games to be held in Matabeleland North in August.

Bulawayo Sports and Recreation Commission co-ordinator Sam Dzvimbu said the meeting would also be used to brief the associations on provincial selection games set for mid-July in the city.

“The process of identifying talent for the National Youth Games has already started from the clusters and the final selection will be done at the provincial finals to be held in mid-July.

“We have scheduled a technical meeting for next Wednesday at Eveline High School where we will get feedback from associations which we believe have been monitoring community sports clubs and schools,” said Dzvimbu.

He said Bulawayo province is expected to take 1 000 athletes to the National Youth Games that run from August 17-27.

Athletes of school going age will compete in the Under-18s, while those drawn from community sports clubs and tertiary institutions will battle it out in the

Under-23 category.

This year’s Games will also have 22 sport codes compared to the generic eight since their inception in 2003.

The new sport codes are rowing, swimming, rugby, hockey, cricket, pool, chess, darts, gymnastic, weightlifting, martial arts, cycling, table tennis and traditional games. These will be in addition to football, basketball, handball, tennis, volleyball, boxing, athletics and netball.

Sport and Recreation Minister Makhosini Hlongwane last week revealed that Government had set aside $2 million for the National Youth Games due to an increase in the number of athletes and officials participating in this year’s competition. — @ZililoR