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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
THE three National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) Matabeleland provinces will today hold their technical meetings ahead of the 2015 inter-districts track and field athletics competitions tomorrow and on Friday.

Bulawayo Province will meet at White City Stadium, Matabeleland South at Pelandaba Stadium while Matabeleland North will be at the Colliery Stadium.

The three provinces will also use their inter-district competitions to select their provincial teams to take to the nationals at South Eastern College in Masvingo from March 19-20.

“Our vetting has been done and tomorrow (today) we’ll have a technical meeting at Northlea High School before a brief tour of White City Stadium by the technical officials,” said the Bulawayo provincial Nash chairperson, Peter Gambiza.

He said they were hopeful that the authorities would allow them to use some of the equipment that was used during the December African Union Sports Council Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games.

“We’ve engaged the authorities and we’re quite positive that they’ll allow us to use some of the equipment as part of the legacy for hosting the regional games last year,” said Gambiza.

His Matabeleland North counterpart, Thabani Nkomo, said districts are expected to check in this afternoon in Hwange ahead of the technical meeting later in the evening.

“As I speak to you I’m already at the competitions’ venue in Hwange. I expect teams to arrive tomorrow afternoon and from the reports I got, all the seven districts are ready for the showdown,” said Nkomo.

The province hopes to improve from its 2014 dismal showing in which it came last.

“Our focus will be on quality not quantity as we select our provincial team, we’ve set ourselves a top five finish at the nationals,” said Nkomo.

He said they were given minimum expected times for track events and distances for field events which they hope to use in their selection of provincial athletes.

Matabeleland South, once a formidable force in athletics, fell drastically last year after the departure of track masters Dumisani Bhebhe and Thandiwe Nyathi with head-in-charge, Norman Nyamambi, admitting that they have been struggling to replace such talent.

“It has been hard for us but we hope we’ll soon be back on our feet again, we have put up a mechanism to reclaim our past glory” said Nyamambi.

He said their technical meeting will be at Gwanda High School this evening.