VUSUMUZI MLILO, the Sports and Recreation Officer with the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture tackles the problems of poor track and field performance of the metropolitan Province of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. A research is done with intervention to come up with a model that can be used by the school system to improve its athletics education.

1. Researched and Written by
VUSUMUZI MLILO

2. Foreword
VUSUMUZI MLILO, the Sports and Recreation
Officer with the Ministry of
Education, Sport, Arts and Culture tackles the
problems of poor track and field performance of
the metropolitan Province of Bulawayo in
Zimbabwe. A research is done with intervention
to come up with a model that can be used by
the school system to improve its athletics
education.

3. 1. Sports and Recreation Commission of Zimbabwe
2. Sparrows Athletics Club
3. National Association of Secondary School Heads
4. Bulawayo Athletics Board

4. PREAMBLE

6. HYPOTHESIS
There is a serious lack of coordinated strategies
among key principals of athletics development
involved in youth athletics resulting in schools
athletics remaining underdeveloped and
performing dismally in national competitions.

7. Research Argument
The researcher argues that although NASH athletics teams
perform badly in NASH provincial competitions, some of
the athletes in the same NASH teams but also involved in
club athletics go on to do 5 times better than the NASH
team in much tougher competitions like the NAAZ Inter-
provincials and the National Youth Games even when they
are just one third of the size of the NASH team.

8. RESEARCH FINDINGS
Bulawayo Nash athletes lack proper technical
development and competition exposure.
School level talent identification is flawed with
leakages.
There is more emphasis by teachers in
charge and heads on winning, rather than
developing quality athletes
Athletics is not relevant in the everyday life of the
young athletes

9. THE EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

10. The Model
After the pilot research, the researcher then
constructed an empirical model where he took
46 athletes from the 2009 NASH team who
were in Form 1 to 3 (average age, 16 years).
These were put into structured training and
exposed to club competitions throughout the
year. Each school was to support its own
students financially to fit into the model.

11. Handicaps of the Model
The school club concept did
not find comprehensive
school support although the
children made it work.
Funding of athletes remained a challenge where schools
did not support their athletes because most parents
could not manage both school fees and travel expenses.
Only those athletes within
the walking distance to the
training venue could attend
all training sessions

12. Achievements of the Model
The model athletes went to the Marondera National Youth
Games and collected 10 gold, 6 silver and 2 bronze medals as
opposed to the 6 gold 4 silver and 6 bronze of 2009 Gweru
Youth Games. They were second place nationally, losing to
Harare by one gold medal. This was the best Youth Games result
for Bulawayo since 2003, the first edition of the Youth Games
Two of these athletes went to Botswana in the
national youth team for the Singapore Youth
Games selection and one brought a bronze
medal to Bulawayo.
Seven of these athletes were selected
for the 2010 Swaziland Zone VI Games in
December.

13. RECOMMENDATIONS
• The Bulawayo schools should form school athletics
clubs fashioned in the same way as professional
clubs. Financial resources of these clubs shall be the
responsibility of the school and club members.
. NASH should keep their
gifted athletes active
throughout the year
through formation of
athletics clubs.
.The school clubs shall be
affiliated to the Bulawayo
Athletics Board and have
voting rights so that schools
can influence decision
making at association level.

14. The clubs can either operate alone in schools if they
have a qualified coach or be attached to a professional
club with qualified coaches.
The school clubs shall compete
against each other regularly in track
and field competitions at least once a
term throughout the year and also
attend as many NAAZ and club
organised competitions as possible

15. There is no compensation given to excelling athletes in terms of assistance in catching
up with school work after being absent as a result of sports programs. These children are
ignored or ridiculed by their teachers even advised to drop sport in favour of academic
subjects.
The generality of teachers do not appreciate sport as a career
option for the majority of the not-so-academically gifted
children, and a scholarship opportunity for the academically
gifted.
Parents and guardians stifle and frustrate athletic career development of their children
due to ignorance and misconceptions about sport. Schools need to provide guidance
and education to parents so that they understand the importance of sport careers in
children’s future.

16. Nash Partnership with Bab

17. The research revealed that there was no productive
relationship between BAB and NASH. Very few zone
conveners invited BAB officials to assist with technical
issues relating to their athletics competitions although
practical evidence showed that these conveners had no
clue of proper athletics technical applications. BAB
could be engaged at every stage of preparations by
zones so that proper planning and conduct of events is
done at the early stages of talent identification and
development.

18. The provincial convener also did not engage BAB
officials at the planning stages of their Inter-zonal
competition. BAB was invited at the end of the
process to run the event. At this stage, it is usually
very difficult to undo or correct fundamental mistakes
which have a significant bearing on the running of the
event itself and the selection of the provincial team.
BAB organising committee should start working with
the convener right at the beginning of the planning
stages.

19. The general standard of competition organisation and
management from inter-house to inter-schools is so
haphazard and unstructured such that athletes are never
exposed to proper competition conditions until they reach
national championships. Teachers in charge of teams also
suffer from the same ignorance and fail to field their
athletes because they cannot cope with the standard
competition demands. A standard competition format
should be used in all athletics competitions at all levels.
BAB is the only authority able to regulate competition
formats as per IAAF and NAAZ recommendations.

20. The selection criterion is weak. It does not give athletes
challenge to keep and maintain fitness before the actual
competition. Those that are shortlisted travel to
competitions whether fit for competition or not. NASH
should engage qualified coaches to train and assess selected
athletes’ fitness for competition. Coaches involved do not
have to be teachers because most of the quality school
athletes in clubs are trained by the same club coaches.

21. BAB has not had the stamina to enforce rules and
regulations of athletics in NASH competitions because of a
very thin working relationship which causes NASH to
always overrule some critical technical decisions. The result
has been that the products of the InterZonal competitions
are half-baked and unfit to contest at national level.
Technical rules and event management rules should be
enforced at school level planning stages so that all zones
are familiar with them and prepare their athletes
accordingly.