• ZAMBIA’S Sydney Siame celebrates12 after winning a gold medal in the 200m men’s final on Saturday, at the on-going Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympics in China. Picture courtesy of GETTY IMAGES

By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE –
SPRINTER Brian Kasinda’s dreams of minting a medal at the on-going Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympics were yesterday shattered after finishing fifth to miss out on the medal barrack of the 200m finals.
With Sydney Siame setting the bar high after winning gold on Saturday, pressure was on Kasinda to follow suit but tumbled to a distant fifth position timing 21.61 seconds in the race that was won by Noah Lyles from the United States of America (USA), who clocked 20.80 seconds.
Baboloki Thebe of Botswana claimed a bronze medal after finishing second with the time of 21.20 seconds with Han-Chung Yang of Taipei bagging bronze after clocking 21.31 seconds.
Female sprinter Abigail Chongo also had a bad day on the tracks but managed to hit her personal best time of 25.29 seconds in the women’s 200m final B despite finishing the race in sixth position.
Laydy Barona of Ecuador won the race with 24.74 seconds on clock while Teodora Gheorghe of Romania and Roseanna McGuckian of Ireland were second and third with the time of 24.81 and 25.15 seconds on the clock.
Distance runner Godfrey Chama, who takes to the tracks in the men’s 800m race today, is the only hope for Zambia’s second medal. The eliminated girls’ hockey team recorded their first win at the Game with a Fiji 6-1 thumping of Fiji in the ninth and 10th classification match.
Meanwhile, Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ) chairperson Mwamba Kalenga has hailed Sydney Siame for minting a gold medal at the Nanjing Games.
Kalenga said in an interview yesterday that the medal was a face saver for the country, taking into account the poor performances that saw judoka Nokutula Banda, swimmer Ralph Goveia and the hockey teams eliminated.
“I want to congratulate Sydney Siame for making Zambia proud by winning a gold medal in Nanjing. As the Sports Council, we are proud of him and we would to urge him to maintain the high standards because he has become a role model for other athletes.
“I will also extend my congratulations to the athletics technical bench for a tremendous job in preparing the athletes for the games,” Kalenga said.