Poor Turnout At COSSASA Athletics Championships

3 May 2011

Only two countries – hosts Namibia and Zambia – participated at the Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa (COSSASA) Athletics Championships in Windhoek over the weekend.

The championships, which caters for youth athletes in the Under-14 and Under-18 age group categories, were doomed from the start when numerous countries withdrew due to a variety of reasons.

Angola, Mauritius, Mozambique, Tanzania and Malawi withdrew due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’, according to an NSSU statement, Botswana withdrew due to a teachers’ strike, while the dominant force in the region, South Africa, withdrew due to governmental organisational changes in its school sport administration which still have to be implemented.

Eventually four nations – Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe – confirmed their participation, as well as the South African province, Boland. The participating contingent however continued to diminish as the invitation to Boland was withdrawn, while communication with Lesotho and Zimbabwe broke down as they failed to turn up.

Swaziland at least made an effort to come, as they left Mbabane by bus, but they had to change their plans and return home after their bus broke down along the way.

When the championships were scheduled to start at 14h00 on April 29, the organisers were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the only other country, Zambia, but word got out that at that stage they had just arrived at Rundu, 700 km away.

It was decided to continue with the event with only Namibian athletes, while the Zambian athletes would fall in with the programme on Saturday morning.

The Zambian athletes arrived late on Friday evening and participated against their Namibian opponents the following morning, but they hardly made an impression as Namibia won most of the events.

Some of the notable performances included that of Namibian middle-distance athlete Ndapandile Nghinaunge, who won both the 1 500m and the 3 000m, Jocelle Deysel, who won both the 100m and 400m hurdles, and Sune Wittmann, who dominated the throwing events. She won the discus and javelin and came second behind compatriot Conette Smit in the shot put.

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