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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter 

WITH their competitions set to kick-off this month, Judo Association of Zimbabwe have indicated that their priority is to ensure their athletes catch up with their counterparts from the region and the continent.

There hasn’t been much happening on the local scene since 2020 due to Covid-19 and JAZ are hoping to try and make up for the lost time and opportunities. 

They are set to kick-start their programmes with the annual meeting on March 19 in Harare. It will be followed by the national schools ranking competition and the Zimbabwe Open competition on March 26 at Girls High School. 

JAZ president, Smart Deke, said the annual meeting is mainly to map the way forward considering they lost some of their coaches and athletes during the break.

On the same day, they are also set to hold a coaching course to update their coaches on the current coaching trends.

“We are trying to come up with a proper programme to cover what we lost because with Covid we also had a challenge of losing some of our coaches and some of our athletes that we have been working with. 

“Because of Covid a lot took place but now on this AGM, we are now paving the way to show people the path we are taking now that we have resumed. 

“So we are mainly targeting coaches to come because after the AGM, on the day, we are having a coaching course,” said Deke. 

JAZ are also targeting a number of regional and continental events. They are looking at competing at the South Africa Open competition in June, African Youth Games in August and Africa Union Sports Council Region Five Youth Games in December. 

They also have a number of schools’ competitions lined-up as part of their efforts to grow the sport country-wide starting from the grassroots. 

“This is actually important for us, to resume competitions since 2020 when the Covid came through. We had some regional competitions last year but it was not as open as now.

“We did receive a lot of equipment last year, and we didn’t manage to utilise the equipment that we have because of Covid, so that was a big blow to us. So we are so excited that now judo in schools has started. We have got some schools that we have already engaged.

“We do have a lot of activities lined-up, especially for this month… We are trying to cover the gap that has been created by Covid from 2020 to 2022. We are trying to promote our sport through events and try and have a bit of more marketing when we have a lot of activities.

“We are targeting our cadets and our youths and our seniors as well. We have Region Five Games this year in Malawi, African Youth Games in Cairo, Egypt, this year and we are also going to have Africa Games next year in Ghana and we do have Olympics 2024, which is now close by. So we are now targeting three groups — cadets, youths and seniors — in preparation of the major events that are coming up.

“We are looking forward to having a fruitful year that is going to bring hope to all the coaches and all the athletes,” said Deke.