Following the approval of the Rebranded and Expanded Zimbabwe National Youth Games and Community Sport Club System we hereby formally advise that the two policies are now going to be operationalized with immediate effect.
The Zimbabwe National Youth Games which used to have eight sport codes and manly focused on the under 20 age group would now be extended to cover the under 23 from the uniformed services, tertiary institutions, the schools platform and the community sport clubs. This will ensure that all the talent is captured thus creating a huge base from which to select talented athletes for higher level of training and exposure.
“The Community Sport Club System is the foundation of all sport system hence the need to strengthen it so that all the other interventions can be accommodated in the club system. All the communities through their wards are expected to have at least four community sport and recreation clubs offering different sporting activities.
“Community Sport and Recreation Clubs also offer the members of the communities with an opportunity to access sport and recreation activities of their choice and this will be delivered within their locality. It also has the advantage of reaching out to all the members of the community without discriminating”, said Joseph Muchechetere SRC Acting Director General.
The Community Sport and Recreation Sport Clubs will be launched in Matabeleland North on 23 June 2017.
The Zimbabwe National Youth Games are being rebranded in order to accommodate more members of the community and also buttress the Community Sport and Recreation Club System which seeks to broaden the opportunities for citizens to take part in sport and recreation activities.
The scope of the Zimbabwe National Youth Games is being widened not only in the number of the sport codes from eight to twenty two, but to also increase the number of people who will have access to them.
“Zimbabwe National Youth Games are essentially talent identification and development platform for young athletes, however there has been leakage of the talent at various levels such as the tertiary institutions and this has created a challenge when selecting national teams for higher levels of competitions.
“We have come up with four pillars to close the gap that was created by the approach that we had taken and these are; the community, schools, tertiary institutions and the unforced services. It needs to be noted that the schools platform will target the under 20s, the community club system, tertiary institutions and the uniformed forces will be under 23”, added Muchechetere.
Muchechetere further added that this approach was going to cover everyone in the community and the Games were going to start in the following order:
- Ward Youth Games – 18 -23 June 2017
- Constituency Youth Games – 29 June to 1 July
- District Youth Games – 13-15 July
- The final provincial team selection will be done by the provinces and they will select from the district competitions.
- The National Youth Games will take place in Hwange from 17-27 August 2017.
“Over and above this new approach it is our thrust that the districts and provinces will create centres of sporting excellence, while universities could serve as national satellite centres of sporting excellence”, Muchechetere said.
