ZAMBIA ATHLETICS PRESIDENT MPONDELA PLEDGES TO WORK WITH OYDC TO RE-INTRODUCE KIDS ATHLETICS

….says the association is concerned with the state of the worn out track and field.

Zambia Athletics (ZA) president Elias Mpondela has disclosed that some of the success stories his association has been recording should also be attributed to the OYDC Zambia – Sports Development Centre which has greatly helped athletes with camping and training.

He says the corporation ZA has with OYDC Zambia has seen the association perform and reach greater heights by producing athletes who are minting medals at various competitions both local and international.
Mpondela says the association is concerned with the state of the running track and wants to help OYDC to have the track replaced so that kids’ athletics can be re-introduced at the multisport facility.

‘’For us to see the [OYDC] running track on which the former IAAF now World Athletics contributed dilapidate to that level it concerns us. We are now rekindling kids athletics, it has been reconfigured. The track at OYDC matters a lot and for us we are going all way out to ensure that we supplement the efforts that the OYDC is making in looking for funding that will make that track be the track that we knew in 2012, 2013 so that our reconfigured kids athletics can have a home and the home will be OYDC’’ he said.

And Mpondela says it is imperative for all associations in Zambia that benefit from the OYDC to put their minds together so that the centre can continue being not only a pride of Zambia but Africa at large.

He reiterates that OYDC will remain a home for ZA adding that the medals and some of the association achievements recorded emanate from the strengths and corporation ZA has had with management at the facility.
Meanwhile Mpondela says he hopes that the upcoming U20 Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) for 2023 which Zambia will be hosting can be used to expedite the process of replacing the worn out track and field so that athletes can use it for warm up sessions in preparation for the games.

‘’We are committed to ensuring that the OYDC works. And aside from athletics, what OYDC stands for is to have a hive of activities and continue being the sports complex that attracts the masses’’ he said.