Commonwealth games, poor showing by Sd

We note the lack of performance by the Swaziland team　at the recently ended Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Yes it was a disaster compared to other sub Saharan countries such as South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia.

It would appear to be a waste of money, and we also note that there appeared to be a lack of the true Swaziland nationals in the teams such as lawn bowls, and swimming? One must question these as our country has many participants in both sports dictums.

At lawn bowls there has been, for over two years a coaching clinic conducted at Mbabane Club for the Swazi youth, yet the side which went were all not of that segment. In swimming the South African team sent only (16) compared to Australia (56), and in bowls South Africa as in swimming achieved many gold medals.

Lack of preparation is no excuse. In swimming a participant’s time will easily indicate if the swimmer will be able to feature or not. I know that as I have over 25 years’ actual experience in this sport and in water polo. If Swaziland is to try to send teams in the future our athletes need to be made to participate in all types of sport across the border in South Africa. In that way they will be able to gauge if they will be able to compete in the real world.

Otherwise it is a waste of money to send teams that do not even get past the first stages, and then become a statistic as was the case now.

I competed in the real world as I said for many years and lack of preparation is not an excuse. An athlete should be trained to win not merely to make up numbers. I would suggest we make a concerted effort and start preparing our ‘youth’ to compete in the next one. We must start now not two weeks before as appears to be the present situation. Our athletes times and performances must be monitored by competitions on an ongoing basis in events with South Africa, as does Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia.

We only send a team which consists of those whose times will warrant their participation. We will then not hear lame excuses, of lack of preparation.

A friend who has achieved in many sports against the best and has experience of winning.

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