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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
NATIONAL head in charge of athletics Nash, Phillip Chikomwe, is convinced they will defend their title when they participate in the upcoming Confederation of Schools Sport Association of Southern Africa track and field championships set for Namibia in two weeks time. The track and field championships are scheduled for May 13 and 14 with countries from the Southern Africa Region expected to take part.

Zimbabwe, who won last year’s edition in Lesotho, are expecting to field more than 90 athletes for the competition. Chikomwe said the team is going into camp tomorrow at Northlea High School in Bulawayo and is optimistic they will retain the title.

“Last year we came first in Lesotho and I am very positive we are going to defend our title because we have the quality. Some of the athletes who competed last year we have got 10 of them in this team.

“In our competition at Hillcrest some of the athletes we picked have even better times than the Cossasa records. So we expect a very good competition. We may increase the number of gold medals this year.

“We are having 46 athletes from Nash and 43 from Naph,” said Chikomwe.

Chikomwe, who is also the team manager, said the week-long camp will see the athletes going through some drills as they fine-tune the team.

And they will be under the guidance of several coaches including National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe director of coaching, talent identification and development, Lisimati Phakamile.

“The team will be in camp for seven days and then from there we travel to Namibia because we are going by road. We are going to field athletes in all the events, at least two athletes for each event.

“In camp we are trying to co-ordinate the whole team because they are coming from different provinces. We need to motivate them.

“We need to polish them up because they were away from competition for a long time. They will go through some drills so that they build skills for the competition.

“We are looking at their preparedness for this event and we now want to condition them for the competition.

“We pick coaches according to their qualifications and area of specialisation. We have got sprints, middle-distance and field events,” said Chikomwe.

Some of the countries expected to compete at the championships are Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia.

“Last year Botswana did not compete and we are expecting tough competition from them as well as Namibia. Being the hosts they have a large field to pick from but we are prepared for them,” said Chikomwe.