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Harare Bureau
GYMNASTICS became the first sport code to pick a medal for Team Zimbabwe on Saturday when Misheck Mbele claimed bronze at the ongoing African Union Sports Council Region Five Youth Games in Maseru, Lesotho.

The Games are running until December 12 and Team Zimbabwe opened their account on Saturday, on a positive note.

Mbele managed third position in the tumbling event, to give Zimbabwe their first medal at the Regional Games.

His coach, Arthur Mushingaidzwa, said they were open-minded going into the Games, taking into account circumstances that surrounded their preparations. And is proud of the outcome.

“To be honest I was neutral, expecting anything, and if we (had) failed to get anything this was a learning process for my athlete, to see what to expect from other competitors on these competitions, as we are focusing on bigger Games like Africa Championships, All Africa Games, or even Olympics.

“I am proud of him and how he performed considering we don’t have a tumbling track or even an air track in Zimbabwe.

We used an old artistic gymnastics strip floor which is not so bouncy any more.

“It’s a good thing we had days for training. At first it was hard for him to cope up with the bounce of the air track that was being used.

But as we progressed with training his performance became better,” said Mushingaidzwa.

He believes with access to the right equipment and facilities there is room for not only Mbele to reach great heights but other local athletes to achieve more at different levels of competition.

“We have talent in Zimbabwe, it only needs the right equipment, some high level skills will be achieved easily,” Mushingaidzwa said.

It was a different story for the girls volleyball team as they lost to Lesotho 2-1 in Pool A.

Zimbabwe lost the first set 28-30 before levelling the score 1-1 when they took the second set 25-22.

But they could not maintain the momentum and went on to lose the last set 8-18.

All pool matches are being played to the best of three sets.

The boys team was scheduled to take on Lesotho late yesterday.

In tennis, Benedict Badza had a good start yesterday when he won in straight sets when beating his opponent from Namibia 6-1, 6-1 to progress to the next round.