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Harare Bureau
NATIONAL Athletics Association of Zimbabwe youth and juniors coach Briad Nhubu says more needs to be done to get their athletes ready for the African Union Sports Council Region 5 Youth Games scheduled for December 2-12 in Maseru, Lesotho.

Athletics is expected to join the Team Zimbabwe this week to continue preparations for the Lesotho Games.

The camp got underway on Friday last week, with football being the first sport code to report for camp.

“Athletes have been training under the auspices of their schools and clubs because NAAZ could not come up with a camp since we had just opened schools in September. Due to that we have been working with club coaches so the athletes have been under the control of those coaches who have been doing basics to keep athletes in form,” Nhubu said.

“Basically, now we are going to look at the level of fitness, general conditioning and then we will look at event specific techniques and tactics that we can improve.”

Some of the athletes expected to be part of the team include Samkeliso Ndebele, who represented Zimbabwe in the World Under-20 Championships in Kenya.

“We have Denzel Siyamulela, who was close to qualifying for the World Junior Championships. He is one of those guys we are hoping will lead the boys. Samkeliso Ndebele is still eligible to participate, she is going to lead the girls.

“We are banking on her experience since she is the one who went to the World Junior Championships in Kenya. We have some hopefuls that have been showing good performances. Panashe Nhenga and Nontokozo Ncube are some of them. However, my fear is that some of their events may be a challenge.

“Yes, they are promising, but when you talk of sprints and we meet South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, it may be a challenge.

So basically, those are the athletes I can say may be the torchbearers. We also have Ryan Dube in long jump. There is also David Nyamufarira in hurdles,” said Nhubu.