Zambia: Two Junior Runners Mint Gold, Silver

31 May 2011

Two junior Zambian athletes have reaped gold and silver medals at the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Southern Region Youth Championships held in Windhoek, Namibia at the weekend.

Zambia Amateur Athletics Association (ZAAA) communications officer Davison Mung’ambata said in an interview yesterday that Harry Mulenga minted gold in 3,000 metres while Cephas Nyimbili reaped silver in 800 metres.

Mung’ambata said Mulenga, of Roan in Luanshya, put up a scintillating performance to clinch gold with a time of eight minutes 47 seconds on Sunday, a day after with Nchanga’s Nyimbili, from Chingola, grabbing silver with a time of one minute 54.77 seconds.

He said it was a good performance for Mulenga who would be Zambia’s sole representative at the seventh International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Youth Championships slated for Lille, France from July 6-10.

“This is a good start for Harry who will travel to France for the World Youth event in the first week of July. Thanks to Olympic Youth Development Centre director, Clement Chileshe for motivating the two athletes by providing tracksuits,” he said.

He said the pair’s performance gave hope to ZAAA that the association could produce a strong squad at the 2012 Under-20 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Zone VI Games to be held in Lusaka.

“It is a good starting point because we have to work very hard this period as you may be aware that Government will host the Zone VI Games next year,” he said.

Mung’ambata said the two athletes were scheduled to leave the Namibian capital Windhoek by public transport yesterday and arrive in Lusaka this afternoon.

AllAfrica – All the Time