Thursday, March 28, 2024

Matete doubts Glasgow success for Zambia.

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Zambia’s most successful sports man Samuel Matete is pessimistic about Zambia’s potential to reap medals from the ongoing 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland.

The Commonwealth Games kicked off in Glasgow on Wednesday with 4,700 athletes from 71 countries taking part in 17 sporting disciplines.

In an interview from Kitwe, Matete said Zambians should not expect too much from local athletes especially runners.

The 1994 Commonwealth Games gold medalist said Zambian athletes have not been prepared adequately for them to reap medals in Glasgow.

“Our preparations have been bad we have not prepared well going into the Commonwealth Games,” Matete said.

Zambia is competing in athletics, boxing, swimming, badminton, squash and bowling among other sporting disciplines.

“We just camped our athletes in Europe for less than three months and our expectations look too high than what we have put in as a country,” he said.

Matete won a gold medal at the 1991 World Championships and was twice silver medalist at the same event.
“It takes years of preparations to win medals; you can’t just wake up today and say that I am going to win a medal,” he added.

“The best we can do is to wish our athletes the best as they get exposure from Scotland.”

Matete is Zambia’s most decorated sportsman after winning silver in the 400 hurdles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

He also won a Commonwealth gold medal at the 1994 Club Games held in Victoria, Canada.

Other honors include gold at the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo before collecting silver in subsequent events held in 1993 and 1995 in Stuttgart, Germany and Gothenburg, Sweden.

Matate also holds the current African 400 meters Hurdles record of 47.10 second that he set at a meet in Zürich, Switzerland in 1991.

18 COMMENTS

  1. ” what still is Zambia’s last medal at the World biggest showpiece event.”
    kuti waseka pa Zambia..ndeloleshafye!

  2. Please! Please! Please! Whoever these guys who organise these games are.. Hear me. Introduce a Charcoal medal for the losers. That way Zambia can be coming back from these games with some medals

  3. Well,Sam may be right in some way but, at times we are just too quick in condemning than giving out solutions to problems. As patriots we must always aim to work as a team more especially to sports disciplines we are inclined to. In future I think the camping of athletes will be a thing of the past if only whoever becomes leader of ZAAA permits us to come in not for any hidden agendas. Personally may be in position to camp them for some time in Europe if the government can secure their documents you know what I mean. I personally love athletics and those that love are friends to me.

    • Mwana do not condemn matete for pointing out something. Who knows he may have tried to advise them but to no avail. From my perspective it is not only camping out at the right time that will improve Zambias standing, but encouraging sports from the grass roots. We have become one sided in supporting sports. We only recognise football as a sport. We should find a way of supporting all sports disciplines. Then encourage them at grass roots. An example is swimming. How many primary and secondary schools in Zambia today have swimming pools esp govt ones? Despite an abundance of water in Zambia we have very few representatives in swimming and these are usually Zambians of caucasian origin. Schools which had swimming pools have had them either vandalised, buried or turned into fish ponds. Shame!

  4. Matete is very right this are not politics were you work up and use your power or corruption to gain something. You cant work up today with your stiffened bornes snd say you will win medals. It doesnot workmlike that in some fields never, never, never can it happen.

    As said the best is to wish them goog luck and gain something

  5. Not sure about the tag “Zambia’s most successful athlete. ” Soccer players are athletes and Kalusha had his fair share of success. “Zambia’s most successful track and field athlete” would probably more appropriate.

    • @Mpika Economist, kindly go back to the archives of sports and you will find that serve for late Keith Spinks Mwila who won a Bronze at the olympics and Lottie Mwale who won Gold at the Commonwealth Games and young Kennedy Kanyanta at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, no one even comes closer. Matete has won gold at the world championships, silver at the olympics, 2 golds at the world cup games and several african championship gold medals. He is the most successful Zambian athlete of all times and that’s just a fact, and not taking away anything from other sports.

    • @Mpika….. being most celebrated Footballer doesn’t necessarily mean successful athlete, I’m afraid its the medals that do the talking here NOT starstruck hero worshipers.Moreover Football is team sport.

    • English people, English. He’s Zambia’s most successful athlete! How many accolades has the man won? Numbers don’t lie, don’t be a victim of hate!

  6. Western gov’ts spend a massive amount on sports, applying latest technology in training. It’s really unfair to developing countries to expect our sports funders to compete with such expenditure. The western sportsman is a mean machine tailored to the last muscle. They have tailored, controlled diets and supplements; our starving lot cannot match. It’s a waste of time and money to enter untrained competitors. What is the point of the commonwealth games anyway? To celebrate your colonial past by being being beaten with the more privileged past colonial masters team? Zambia should skip the Comms. and save money for training for Olympics or world cups.

    • You watch too many documentaries at times that make you lazy to think merely relying on first principles goes a long way in many sports disciplines…Cuba is a shining example.

  7. Indeed we need good preparations to win.but I hope they carried enough juju and weed. But again I doubt that would assist, anyway I agree let’s wish them the best.it was good to see the judoka win the bronze, I hope they are many more on the way

    • Wining at major tournaments is about preparations, Germany started preparing to win this World Cup about 6-8 years ago…whereas Zambians start preparing for games about two months before the games.

  8. I concur with Samuel Matete. It takes a lot of hard work and years of preparation to win medals at international meets. Probably the boxers and judokas might win some medals but the runners, that’s pushing our lucky too far. The most seasoned athlete in the team, Prince Mumba whose best time in 800m is 1:46+ will be going against the world record holder David Rudisha whose best time is 1:40.:91 and other sub 1:43 runners from other countries. Matete knows what he’s talking about considering his vast experience both as a youth, teenager and professional athletes. We need to go a spade a spade and put so much hope on athletes who did not adequately prepare as they will be running against professionals.

  9. I concur with Samuel Matete. It takes a lot of hard work and years of preparation to win medals at international meets. Probably the boxers and judokas might win some medals but the runners, that’s pushing our lucky too far. The most seasoned athlete in the team, Prince Mumba whose best time in 800m is 1:46+ will be going against the world record holder David Rudisha whose best time is 1:40.:91 and other sub 1:43 runners from other countries. Matete knows what he’s talking about considering his vast experience both as a youth, teenager and professional athletes. We need to call a spade a spade and not put so much hope on athletes who did not adequately prepare for such a meet as they will be running against professional and elite athletes.

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