IF SPORTS WERE POLITICS ZIM WOULD GREAT

BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe would be the jewel of Africa if its politicians were like its exemplary sports persons who put their efforts into attaining gold regardless of circumstances militating against them. Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambira would attain gold by creating room for national healing and the rescuscitation of the economy. Writes Simba Nembaware

When the country attained independence from Britain in 1980 the country's female hockey team, the Golden Girls extended the party celebrations by scooping a gold in Moscow, Russia at the Olympic games.

The golden girls was an all white team and it did not matter as the country was not divided along racial and tribal lines. Then came cricket and soccer. Names that come to the fore when one reminisces about these two sports are Reinhard Fabisch, Bruce Grobbelaar, Henry McKop, Andy Flower, Alistar Campbell, Peter Ndlovu, Vitalis Takawira, Boy Ndlovu, Neil Johnsen and Tatenda Taibu.

Our success count will be incomplete if Kirsty Coventry, Elliot Mujaji and Stephen Muzhingi are not mentioned.

In 2005, Coventry was the top individual scorer at the NCAA Championships and captured three individual titles including the 200 m and 400 m individual medley and the 200 m backstroke for the second consecutive season. She was named the College Swimming Coaches Association Swimmer of the Meet for her efforts. Other awards include 2005 SEC Swimmer of the Year, the 2004-2005 SEC Female Athlete of the Year, and the 2005 Honda Award Winner for Swimming.

At the 2005 World championships in Montreal Kirsty improved on her 2004 Olympic medal count by winning gold in both the 100 m and 200 m backstroke and silver in the 200 m and the 400 m IM. She bettered her Olympic gold-winning 200 m backstroke time with a performance of 2:08.52. Although she was one of just two swimmers from Zimbabwe, her performance allowed Zimbabwe to rank third in the medal count by nation. In addition Kirsty picked up the female swimmer of the meet honors.

In Melbourne at the 2007 World Championships, Coventry won silver medals in the 200 m backstroke and 200 m IM. She was disqualified in the 400 m IM when finishing second to eventual winner Katie Hoff in her heat. Kirsty finished in a disappointing 14th place in the 100 m backstroke in a time of 1:01.73, failing to qualify for the final.

Coventry continued her good form of 2007 by winning four gold medals at the International Swim Meet in Narashino, Japan. She led the way in the 200 m and 400 m IM as well as the 100 m and 200 m backstroke.

In 2008, Coventry broke her first world record in the 200 m backstroke at the Missouri Grand Prix. She bettered the mark set by Krisztina Egerszegi in August 1991, the second oldest swimming world record. Her new record was 2:06:39. Coventry continued her winning streak at the meet by winning the 100 m backstroke and the 200 m IM. Kirsty Coventry is the third woman in history to break the 1:00 minute barrier in the 100 m backstroke, and is the fastest swimmer of all-time at 58.77 in this event.

At the 2008 Manchester Short Course World Championships, Kirsty Coventry broke her second world record, setting a time, whilst winning the gold medal, of 4:26:52 in the 400 m IM. The following day saw Coventry win her second gold medal of the championships in the 100 m backstroke. Her time of 57:10 was a new championship record and the second fastest time in history in the event.

Only Natalie Coughlin has swum faster (56:51). Day three of the championships saw Coventry break another championship record in qualifying fastest for the final of the 200 m backstroke. Her time of 2:03:69 was a mere four tenths of a second outside the current world record set by Reiko Nakamura in Tokyo in 2008.

Coventry then bettered this time to take her second world record of the championships by winning the final in a time of 2:00:91. She then went on to shatter the short course World Record in winning the 200 m Individual Medley in 2:06:13. Due to her performances at the World Championships, Kirsty Coventry was named as the FINA Female Swimmer of the Championships.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing Zimbabwe's hopes were on Conventry again. She won the silver medal in the 400 m individual medley on 10 August 2008, becoming the second woman to swim the medley in less than 4:30, the first being Stephanie Rice who won the gold in the same event. Coventry beat the world record by just under two seconds, and was only just beaten by Rice to a new WR.

Coventry, in the second semi-final of the 100 m Backstroke, set a new World Record of 58.77 seconds. However, in the final of that event she was beaten to the gold medal by Natalie Coughlin. Coventry was again beaten by Stephanie Rice in the 200 m individual medley, despite swimming under the old world record. Coventry did defend her Olympic title in the 200 m backstroke, winning gold in a world record time of 2:05.24.

For her inspirational role the world over she was appointed an Ambassador to Hope for Children, a United Kingdom registered charity on August 1, 2008.

Mujaji's tale is that of resilience as he defied odds by recovering from a comma and go represent the country in the summer of 2000 at the Sydney Paralympics. He was the fastest runner in the heats of the 200 metres sprint, but was disqualified for having encroached on another lane. He won gold in the 100 metres sprint - Zimbabwe's first ever Paralympic gold medal.

Mujaji competed again at the 2004 Summer Paralympics and once again won gold in the 100 metres sprint. He also represented the country at the 2008 Beijing paralympics in the 100m and 200m sprints.

Muzhingi won sunday's 89km Comrades Marathon in South Africa thereby breaking Russian domination of the men’s race. He won in 5:23:26, the second fastest time in history today. He missed the world recorded by just over a minute