Minister of Sports Elvis Nkandu has described Zambia’s performance at the just ended 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England as fair.
Zambia won three medals to finish 20th out of over 70 participating countries at the Birmingham Games.
Team Zambia won gold in athletics, silver and bronze in boxing.
“We came out number 20 out of 72 countries that participated in the Commonwealth Games,” Nkandu told ZNBC.
“And out of 280 events we managed to come out I think number 20 out of 73 countries people should now know that we are at number 20 as per yesterday’s (Monday) last games. So obviously I would say it was fair,” Nkandu said.
Zambia was among the top seven African countries at the games.
“Looking at the events we participated in which to some extent is very embarrassing to find ourselves participating in only eight events out of 280,” Nkandu said.
Team Zambia fielded 41 athletes from nine sports disciplines namely athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, judo, rugby sevens, para-powerlifting, squash and swimming.
I think we should focus our money on developing football and athletics. These are relatively in expensive sports that we can improve in all corners of the country to better identify and groom talent. We should take the example of Jamaica and Fiji which have focused on sprinting and 7-a-side rugby, and become the best at them in the world. Poor countries like our own do not succeed at anything when they try to be the best at everything because they simply lack the resources.
What is fair about winning only 1 gold. That is a loss
Does this guy think straight? After he dressed down the Zambian team now he is saying they were fair? He should be fired for being incompetent and failing to motivate the team. These guys just mind their pocketed allowances not the fate nor pride of the nation.
Reporting is terrible. Zambia won how many gold? silver bronze? In which sports?