It’s great interacting with you again after a while when I left his in the hands of Mr Samuel Lukhanda.
As I return, drama has greeted me on two fronts and these is from athletics and on the pitch of football involving two exciting talents in the country in the form of sprinter Sydney Siame and footballer Walter Bwalya.
Both matters are pretty much similar as I feel communication has not been handled rightly on the two issues I have at hand.
I will start with runner Sydney Siame who was the talk world over three months ago after he posted an unbelievable time of 9.88seconds in the 100m dash during a Zambia Amateur Athletics Association (ZAAA) organised event at Heroes stadium.
The time Siame posted became a world leading time this year and apart from qualifying him to the London World Championships, also set the new national record which was previously held by United States of America based Gerald Phiri at 10.03 seconds.
The world athletics authority (IAAF) after a few days of verification confirmed Siame’s new time and a world leading time, a situation which stood until last week.
A look at the IAAF   website reveals that Siame’s astonishing time has been removed and the old time reinstated as his personal best.
What baffles me about this whole happening is the decision by the ZAAA to keep quiet about the whole matter when they know this is something that affects not just the institution but the country and the world.
Unconfirmed reports state the IAAF are investigating the matter but the ZAAA has chosen to be mum about the whole issue which will lead to speculation of either collusion or even incompetence by technical people who were handling the timing  system.
It will be important for the ZAAA to clear the air on what is happening about this because as things stand, Siame and Hazemba Chindamba will not be going to World Championships next month, again this is speculation.
I have no doubt about Siame’s ability to reach that time since he has immense potential as shown when he won the gold at the world youth championship in China three years ago but I was sceptical about Chindamba’s 10.01 seconds time.
It will be important that ZAAA tells us what the issue is in this case.
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Second issue on my mind are the happenings yesterday at Choma’s Independence Stadium where Nkana lined up Walters Bwalya to play despite the ban remaining in effect.
Bwalya’s name appeared on the Nkana starting list but was withdrawn at the last minute without any proper explanation with Nkana coach Beston Chambeshi asking his executive to quickly resolve the matter.
He claimed Walter Bwalya was in his game plan going into the 2-0 away defeat to Green Eagles and the last minute change affected his team.
I believe this was a publicity stunt to put pressure on the FAZ to sort out the matter as the coming of the ITC alone is not enough to get him to play as the FAZ also said they wanted to investigate the matter.
Hope the matter is put to bed in the course of the week
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