Athletics great Samuel Matete has returned to coaching after his unsuccessful bid to become president of the Zambia Athletics Association.
Matete has formed an athletics academy at Kitwe Playing Field which has attracted scores of youngsters.
The former World 400 meters hurdles champion is seeking to nurture splinters at his academy.
“I have decided to start training athletes. I am now very much into coaching, I want to produce splinters. I have returned to the grassroots to train kids and help them to be fast,” Matete said.
“I am looking forward to producing more splinters for Zambia. I am working with kids mostly from nearby schools like Helen Kaunda, Kitwe Boys and Mitanto,” he said.
“It is amazing that more kids are coming to Kitwe Playing Fields. I have to train them and expose them to competitions. Whenever there is a competition for ZAA I will take them so that they showcase their talent,” Matete said.
Matete was once an athletics instructor at the High Performance Training Centre in Mauritius.
The International Athletics Associations Federation (IAAF) in 2009 appointed Matete as coach at the Mauritius based training centre.
On return to Zambia, ZAA appointed him national coach but couldn’t take up the role for personal reasons.
Kambwili as Minister of Sports connived with corrupt ZAAA life President Mpondela to frustrate Matete’s ambitions. I wish Matete well in his new venture.
I thinks he wants to attract Sprinter not Splinter ba LT!
Good for you Samuel. The fact that you were in America creates some level of resentment from higher ups so keep pushing for you too are Zambian and the most decorated athlete the country has ever produced!
Direct quoting from Big Sam “Splinters”.
LT journalist thinks it’s Splinters, really? Splinters or Sprinters?
Awe ba LT my jaw keeps dropping-sorry dlopping-at their blunders
The chosen one, you have just hummer the nail on the head. Truly those people frustrated the Great Matete to nurture our children and become great too. CK was bad person and Mpondela being on the same position for life it is not good for our country.
Some time mulelabako ama politics. It is not everything you see,hear smell is politics. Awe twanaka naimwe BA HAMOOKOMA . TRY LOVE. It will definitely destroy that spirit of hatred you have for some group of people.
ZAAA, I have a liking for Mpondela but he has not achieved what we want. I saw him on tele sometime back itemising what he thinks he has achieved. He seemed very happy with his underperformance but that’s what happens when you have low targets in your life, you never notice that you are in fact underachieving
I am sorry but there is nothing to like. Zambia has lagged behind in athletics by a thousand mile. The performance of our runners has gone terribly down and wrong.
What Mpondela has done is to change the objectives of ZAAA to a fitness club. For the love of this country, could we have a change in the leadership; Anyone but Mpondela and his cronies. Mediocrity has become a norm and you want medals? Please use your God given brains!
It infuriates me each time I read about ZAAA.
Thanks @Mulenga that guy should leave that seat for competent people he is just a chancer and sucker.
Spot on Mulenga. No seriously recognised meet with the most important event in the ZAAA calender being the commercially driven inter-company relay, means i dont know who the fastest man or woman in zambia is but i know who the fastest c.e.o is. For a sport that challenges football for the position of most popular in secondary school level, when ZAAA takes over the schools the sport plunges into a black and is non existance.
Its like Mpondela is more interested in grooming the next fastest c.e.o than grooming olympic medal challengers.
Matete’s geniune love for the sport can be felt in his voice when he speaks and i his actions when he pushes to put Zambian athletics where it deserves to be.
Way to go big man. You’ve set the record and yet to be broken by a zambian. Well done
Unsuccessful so far, the end is not yet in sight.
Mpondela’s days are numbered, a president who’s main achievements are creating a PR event, the annual “Inter-Company Relay” and advancing the sprint career of his daughter, Suwilanji, what a shame! Sam Matete, and other serious men & women like him, need a turn at the wheel of ZAAA & indeed other sports associations, this mediocrity is becoming unbearable. If Kenya & Ethiopia could rise to the top of world athletics with similar “issues” what else could be holding us back if not poor leadership?…
Shame your critics by going to the basics. This is were you need to start from, the sky is the limit.
I cried that day in Tokyo in 1991 and still habour charised memories as Samuel Matete powered through 400 metres hurdles to become the very first Zambian track and field world champion. It was so emotional as he scaled the podium, the Zambian national flag was hoisted up so far away from home and our beloved national anthem echoed through the stadium! You should have been there to feel the electricity in the air that sunny day as one of our very patriotic sons put Zambia on the global map. The most tragic thing is how little appreciation he gets back home and imagine how high he raised the name Zambia only to have skanks like Mpondela and Kambwili pull him down, creatures that do nothing but soil the flag of this country through their stinking corruptions. Anyway, that’s why lubata ku…
You bring tears of joy and anger at the same time to my eyes. It was a moving moment but the politicians have never appreciated the achievement. They pay no attention to sport
…. pumeha kwateni lumi siye munosi lyanganu tuni.
Whoever wants inspiration needs to look at this site above and see for yourselves what a determined Zambian can achieve. All these faeces who masquerade as loving this country are nothing but scoundrels using patriotism as their last refuge to plunder. Just like ka Chiluba declared Zambia a Christian nation and while your closed your eyes to pray, the Kasai pygmy looted Zamtrop and one mwine Chipata aMwanza woke up only to find the wife had also been stolen by the stinking thief. Zambians, muleke tulo ka!
I just hope and pray some ‘frightened’ character will not come up tomorrow with all sorts of pathetic reasons how that Matete and his initiative are not recognized by ZAAA!!!
Matete has a lot to offer to Zambian athletics , he is the best person to do the job in that area .
Zambians must appreciate one another in all fields Matte did good for the nation .
Lets give Samuel Matete all th support he needs because he’s the greatest sportsman of all times mother Zambia has ever produced sports combined. We are not lacking in professional coaching and administrative talent, but the status quo of idolizing one man who has been at the helm for the last 20 plus years and manipulating retired poverty stricken men and women, to advance his scheme. It’s high time we embraced change as Matete has been trying to bring about. He was already an administrator with ZCCM Nkana division then even before he was awarded a scholarship to the USA.