Zimbabwe once again crowned as COSSASA champion

This past Saturday Zimbabwe was crowned as the champion of the 17th Confederation of School’s Sport Associations of Southern Africa (COSSASA) athletics games. The games took place at the Vineta Sports Stadium from 12-14 May.
Over 500 athletes from Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia took part in the COSSASA games this year. The majority of athletes were from Zimbabwe and Botswana. Delivering a speech on behalf of the Ministry of Sports and Culture, the Director of Sport Mr Edelberth Sivhute Katamba said sport has an inherent value, “the acts of competing and spectating form an important part of our culture. Our sport are national passions and commercial assets”. Katamba further said that sport teaches people incredibly important lessons about life, the joy of triumph and also about learning to be resilient when people lose, and to lose with grace. The closing awards ceremony was held at the Mondesa Multipurpose Centre. The award for Best Junior Female Field went to Chriselene Klein of Namibia with 914 points in High Jump, Best Male Field award went to Reuben Wedu of Botswana who obtained 786 points in High Jump. Chriselene Klein also received an award for Best U/13 Female Athlete and Junior Vitrix Ludorum. Another Namibian athlete who performed well was Natalie Louw, she received an award for Best U/17 Female Athlete and an award for Senior Vitrix Ludorum. Zimbabwe walked away with a total of 55 metals containing of 21 gold medals, 20 silver medals and 14 bronze. Namibia who received the second place award, had 52 medals consisting of 18 gold, 19 silver and 15 bronze medals. Botswana went home with 36 medals of which 9 were gold, 13 silver and 14 bronze. Lesotho had 2 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals. It is the third time in a row that Zimbabwe wins the COSSASA games and that Namibia also takes second place position. During the closing ceremony Mr Fedelis Tibinyani, the Chairperson of Namibia School Sport Union said the union will try to get as many Southern African countries to participate in the next
COSSASA games.