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Tedious Manyepo Sports Reporter
FIVE Zimbabwean wrestlers flew the country’s flag high at the African Belt Wrestling Championships in Cape Town, South Africa last week. The quintet, who participated in different categories, brought home two gold, three silver and as many bronze medals.Evergreen Paddington Mashaire, who represented the country in the 55-kg-and-under, grabbed a brace of silver medals in both the Kazakh Kuresi and Turkmen Goresh styles while Munyaradzi Chitsa won a fourth bronze in the Under-75kg category of the Kazakh Kuresi.

Titus Chinjekure, who fought in the same category with Chitsa, emerged the king in both the Khazakh Kuresi and Turkmen Goresh styles as he smashed double gold.

Herbert Mururi weighed in with a third bronze in the Khazakh Kuresi open weight category as well as a silver medal in Turkmen Goresh with Musah Mapfungautsi completing the haul after winning a fourth bronze in the Under-75kg section.

Zimbabwe Wrestling Federation secretary-general Tapiwa Masinire said he was happy with the team’s spirited performance.

“I would like to applaud the wrestlers for the job well done. It was always not going to be easy for the wrestlers considering some resource constraints which we are facing as a Federation.

“We had to stretch ourselves to the limit to be able to make it to South Africa. “Imagine we had to make that trip crammed in a Toyota Raum which regularly broke down along the way.

“But the boys put all those problems behind them and amazingly rose up to the occasion to clinch these medals. “I am calling upon the corporate world to come on board and partner us as we guarantee them good value for their brand,” said Masinire.

A total of 10 Southern African countries participated at the event which ran concurrently with a training camp to equip the participants with top-of-the-shelf skills which will enable them to stand toe-to-toe with world class fighters in the ring.

Zimbabwe was being represented at the event for the first time since 1956 and Malawi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Namibia, Swaziland, Madagascar, the Seychelles, Botswana and Mozambique also took part.