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Last weekend saw young Zimbabwean golfer Keegan Shutt writing his own piece of history in South Africa, where he won the Nomads SA Under-15 Championship at Selborne Golf Club.

The 14-year-old sandwiched a flawless one-under 71 between two rounds of 75 to record a two-shot triumph on five-over 221, to celebrate his first victory on South African soil.

The South Coast once again proved a happy hunting ground for the Zimbabwean youngster who won the Under-19 division of the SA Kids Golf Junior African Challenge at San Lameer last year.

He led the Nomads National Order of Merit Coastal at the same venue earlier in the week, but took himself out of the title race with an expensive 75 in the final round.

It’s sad that Shutt’s exploits on the golf course at Selborne Golf Club largely went unnoticed back home in Zimbabwe as the country was in the first week of the 30-day coronavirus-induced lockdown, which led the Sports Commission to freeze all the sporting activities in the country.

Luckily, Shutt had already left the country for South Africa before the latest lockdown restrictions came into force and the youngster proved that he was one for the future after flying the country’s flag sky high during the Nomads SA Under-15 Championship.

Seasoned golf coach Roger Baylis has even tipped Shutt as a future prospect for golf in Zimbabwe and he even described him as a distinct young talent.

Shutt was not the only young Zimbabwean athlete who was making headlines at the other side of the Limpopo last week.

Rising female tennis star Kudzai Chapepa also pulled a shocker to clinch the Wilson Gauteng Grand Prix in Pretoria on Friday last week.

Bulawayo-based Chapepa, who was unseeded, claimed the scalps of the two top seeds on her way to winning her first tournament of the year in her promising career.

The 12-year-old Chapepa beat top seed, South African Alme Van Schalkwyk, 6-2, 6-3 in the final to lift the 14-and-under age group category trophy. On her way to the final, the Bulawayo-based starlet dispatched another South African, Simone Faver, 6-0, 6-0 in the first round before making light work of Tania Venter with the same scoreline. In the quarter-finals, she showed her prowess to beat second seed Moroesi Tuoane 6-0, 6-2, while in the semi-finals she rolled over fourth seed Ciaran McConnell 6-2, 6-0.

Chapepa played at the same tournament with her younger sister, Kuzivaishe.

Kuzivaishe (9) took part in the 12-and-under category where she claimed sixth position after losing in the quarter-finals to Milan Swanepoel of South Africa, 0-6, 1-6.

Just like Shutt, Kudzai’s sweet victory at the Wilson Gauteng Grand Prix escaped the attention of a lot of sport followers in this country as they were still adjusting to the latest lockdown restrictions.

But what is really disappointing or disheartening is that there were no congratulatory messages from the local sport authorities following these two young, promising athletes’ phenomenal achievements in South Africa, where locals rarely come out with any winners’ medals in the sporting arena in that country.

It’s no secret that South Africa is a dominant force or sporting powerhouse in Africa and watching two, young Zimbabwean athletes — Keegan Shutt and Kudzai Chapepa — defying the odds and emerging triumphant in the Nomads SA Under-15 Championship and Wilson Gauteng Grand Prix is something worth celebrating and should have made headlines back home in Zimbabwe.

We are quite sure that these two young sporting ambassadors of this country competed in these two events without getting any financial assistance from the relevant authorities in this country and their trip to South Africa was either bankrolled by their parents or well-wishers.

In fact, the Chapepa sisters’ father, Fradreck, recently told our sister paper, The Chronicle, that he is making a lot of sacrifices, financially, in making sure that his two daughters, whom he wants to be the next Serena and Venus Williams of this world, get the much-needed international exposure by taking part in high profile junior tournaments such as the Wilson Gauteng Grand Prix in South Africa.

But getting his kids to go and play in South Africa is also hitting him hard in the pocket and is finding it increasingly difficult to go it alone without getting some financial assistance from both the Government and the corporates.

Fradreck Chapepa said participating in tournaments improves the player’s game as he or she gains experience from each tournament.

He said featuring in more tournaments allows young players to socialise, which assists them to develop other cognitive skills while creating rivalry and competition, which is healthy.

“Our players are not competitive when playing outside as they lack match experience. Coaches and parents can use tournaments to measure progress being made and identify areas that need improvement.

“We cannot have constant training with no assessment; it’s like a pilot flying a radar-less aeroplane. You don’t know where you are and where you are going,” said Fradreck Chapepa.

He said he had to send his children, Kudzai and Kuzivaishe, to South Africa to play in a number of tournaments to gain match experience after practising for months without any competitive matches in Zimbabwe.

The two sisters spent Christmas in the neighbouring country and were expected to take part in more events in South Africa in the next couple of weeks. And staying and playing in South Africa will see Fradreck Chapepa pumping out more money from his own pocket and this is a sad scenario as we deeply feel that’s where the Government, through the Sports Commission, and the corporates comes in to help him in meeting some of the expenses he will incur during his kids’ stay Down South.

Here we have two promising tennis players — Kudzai and Kuzivaishe Chapepa — who are doing the country proud by playing and winning tournaments outside our borders, raising the country’s flag high along the way.

The Chapepa sisters and Shutt are not the only talented young athletes that Zimbabwe possesses. There’s a lot of untapped talent out there and they just need to be identified and nurtured at an early stage if we are to produce worldclass athletes.

But this all needs us to put our heads together and find ways and means to create a conducive operating environment for these kids by availing all the resources to them. In short, we need to invest heavily in our junior development programmes.