• National junior athletics coach, Kezzias Nyendwa (Left) gives tips to runner, Jonathan Katakula during yesterday’s training session in Lusaka for the African Union Sports Commission Region Five Games. Picture by SHAMAOMA MUSONDA

By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –
NATIONAL junior athletics coach, Kezzias Nyendwa says medals will not be his first attraction at the 2014 Africa Union Sports Commission (AUSC) Region Five Under-20 Games starting in Zimbabwean city of Bulawayo next week.
Nyendwa, who will be travelling with 10 athletes to the regional games, said the girls and boys he had should first look at improving on their personal best instead of looking for medals.
In an interview after a training session at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka yesterday, Nyendwa said medals with poor times would make him sad.
“What I want to see from my athletes is them improving on their personal best performance. So if any athlete wins a medal with a performance far less than their personal best, then that is bad and I will be very sad.
“But if they fail to get a medal but beat their personal best performance, then I will be the happiest coach in the world. So I won’t promise a medal but I will promise fireworks from my team,” he said.
Zambia will be one of the biggest attraction at the games and prospects do not come bigger than Sydney Siame, that 16-year-old who shot to world limelight after winning a gold medal at the Nanjing Youth Olympics in China earlier this year and got tagged ‘the fastest kid in the world.
Also heading to Bulawayo with Siame will be Brian Kasinda, the talented middle distance runner, Geoffrey Chama, Jonathan Katakala, Joseph Sinkala, Liston Kwandenda and Moono Munkombwe while the girls making the trip are Marjory Chisenga, Abigail Sepiso and Abigail Chongo.
And tennis national coach, Teddy Chambisha said the players were geared for the Zimbabwe challenge despite most of them not featuring in competitive events recently.
Chambisha said the players were responding well to training and all four were at the peak of their fitness and perfecting their shots.
The tennis players are Jackson Kalaba, Lwanga Lumbeta, Idah Longwe and Mwanza Ngulube.
Kalaba expressed happiness with the opportunity to play in the Zimbabwe games and promised his best saying “it feels like going to play in the ITF junior championship” which he took part in South Africa four years ago.
His colleague Lumbeta was happy to get a chance to represent Zambia for the first time and promised to give his all in the AUSC Region Five Under-20 Games.