By Courage Dutiro
Gutu High School was crowned champion of the 2024 inter-Reformed Church In Zimbabwe (RCZ) school’s athletic competitions held at Alheit High School on February 3 after they clinched 25 gold medals.
Gutu High School head Mirirai Mutanda said their inter-house competitions were not just games but were their training session and the intense competition helped them to build a strong team that dominated the RCZ inter-school athletics competition.
“We were well prepared for this competition, when we did our inter-house competitions there was stiff competition and that is when we selected the team that participated in this competition.
“I am happy that we managed to be the 2024 RCZ athletics champions. Probably 2024 is our year, in academics, we had O-level results that are good and now we got another feat,” said Mutanda.
One of the sporting and academic powerhouses nationally, Pamushana High School from Bikita District came second with 20 gold medals.
The third place was Makumbe High School from Buhera District of Manicaland province with eighteen (18) gold medals.
2023 champions Chibi High School of Chivi District came fourth with 15 gold medals.
Chibi High head Raymond Ndega said this year’s competition was stiff and all schools were well prepared and as defending champions they wanted to retain the title but failed.
“Last year we were the champions in the RCZ athletic competitions. This time the competition was tough as all teams were well prepared. Our participants did well and we came out number four, we will start preparing for next year’s,” Ndega said.
Fifth placed Nyashanu High School from Buhera District got 9 gold medals and the school head Jackson Dunatuna said the athletic competitions were a closed chapter and they were shifting focus to ball games.
“We had a very good sporting day. We hope to do better next time, we are preparing very hard, especially for the ball games that are coming to our district at our sister school Makumbe High. We are going to give other schools tough competition in the ball games,” said Dunatuna.
The host school head Bernard Tagutanazvo, whose school got 3 gold medals, encouraged learners to participate in sports saying they do not only strengthen the physical but also sharpen the mind.
“The competition was very stiff but our learners did quite well. We urge learners to take part in sporting activities because a strong body means a strong mind, the idea is participate no matter what comes out. It was quite a good competition, we all did our best but we could not all win,” said Tagutanazvo.
Henry Murray and Morgenster High schools from Masvingo District got 2 gold medals each while Jichidza High School from Zaka District got a single gold medal.
