The Never Give Up starts again! We are at the fifteenth edition!

Today’s race is the C7 to Mungu, 7km for the Seniors and 5 km for the Juniors. Continue reading →

The longest race in the NGU circuit scares many athletes off, mainly among the senior girls who are about ten. Special guest of today Bruno who after the Slums Dunk training for today he is the official photographer of the race other than enjoying the race and the beautiful arrival at the market-port of Chaniania.

The seniors start off great, Americano keeps the first place for a little more than a kilometer, then Prosper Phiri with his UNDER 10 Top Scorer from the 2010 football league catches him. But the three champions, Gillias, Abraham and Sydney who started slow get them with any problem and win the podium. By now champion of the fourteenth edition of the NGU, Gillias came back to the Never Give Up after performing amazingly at the national championship in Ndola where he kept up with professional athletes who train in Japan even though he was not training, he realized he has great talent, he still works as a brick layer but takes a day off the days of the race. The senior girls podium too is confermed: Mercy Kapempe, Milika Muweswa e Ramona Muyoya.

The Junior’s departure is a couple of kilometers further, for them the race is of 10km. among the boys first at the arrival are Best Michelo, Emmanuel Kunda e Joe Malambo. The junior girl champion, Patience Kunda arrives third, maybe still tired from the very long bus journey from Tanzania. First is Silvia Malaila and second Grace Ntelesha.

The arrival in Chaniania is always among a crowd of children covered in dust who play in front of the market of the port. There is a very young girl, maybe just over 4 years, carrying an even younger one on her back, like a miniature mum she cuddles and cares for the little sister of a few months. There are a couple of completely drunk men, they could be anything between 20 and 40 year old, alcohol to numb their problems has destroyed them. The arrival of each race gives a picture of the reality we are in, every glance tells a story, every smile is a sign of hope in this beautiful market with the river flowing gently a few meters away.

Mungu-Kabwesa! I like this race, I like mainly the arrival at Kabwesa with the ever present cows, the church and the school one in front of the other and the many children playing with the used tires of bicycles  and cars. This afternoon Zambia is playing against Sudan and the Junior team from Chaniania are all wearing the Chipolopoli jerseys.

At the arrival as we are waiting for the Juniors, after a race which saw him conquer the second place Lucky Kazembe comes closer carrying in his arms the small Christine all covered up even with a woolen beanie in this very hot day. Christine is two months old and is the daughter of the young Lucky who after finishing the school last year he is now studying metal fabrication and ‘I like math and technical drawing’ he tells us with enthusiasm.

First at the finish line are Gillias Nangwala, Lucky Kasembe and Abraham Kunda. Soon after also the Senior girls arrive with MercyKapempe, Milike Muwewa and Ramona Muyoua. Podium once again for Joe Malambo, third Junior boy, second Emanuel Kunda and first Best Michelo. Patience Kunda first Junior Girl, followed by Loveness Malaila and Grace Ntelesha.

After the prize giving of this third race of 2013, a special award: Paul Kazembe and Maxmillian Nkandu receive medals from the OYDC Presidential Challenge as ‘most improved’ and ‘most promising’. Two young raising stars of the Zambian athletics.

Next race in three weeks time, and the next post from Moshi in Tanzania for the East Africa Cup to which Sport2build has been invited with four football teams, one sitting volleyball and one culture group.

The shortest race of the Never Give Up circuit is the favorite among the Juniors, very young children line up with enthusiasm for the registration.

The date for the interschools races was set up all of a sudden just a couple of days ago on the same day of our Never Give Up and we risked to have a very low participation rate, but this did not happen, the stronger athletes chose to run the Mungu round rather than take part in the school competition, since it is often biased by out of school children who participate giving fake DOBs. Continue reading →

With big white rockstar sunglasses which he never removes not even for a second, the champion Gillias makes his come back after a season in which his job a bricklayer kept him away from the Never Give Up of last year. A slow start for Gillias, but when the Senior group reaches the starting point of the Junior his fantastic catch up among the loud cheering of the young ones ‘Giko, Giko’. A triumphant comeback which makes him conquer the first place. Continue reading →

11 of our athletes U14 successfully participated at the first IOC Presidential Challenge in Lusaka, a truck&field duathlon.

They wanted to participate, to win, to grow, and to defeat big boys still affected by age cheating.

W sport and its values!

Malaria accentuates my very low inclination to waking up early, I have ended up hating Billie Jean of Michael Jackson which is my alarm clock lately, but I could not sleep, it was not the ham race of Busto Garolfo, but the selections for the Youth African Championshipss which will be held in Nigeria from 28 to 31 March. Only athletes of sixteen and seventeen years old can participate, with the only exception of those who are 15. Continue reading →

It took us thirteen editions to run fro Mungu to Chikupi … and was it not for the rain which
turned the black soil between Kabwesa and Chikupi into quick sand we would not have run it today either!

Many athletes as it is custom around here when it rains did not move from their houses … they say that travelling with the rain it is dangerous especially for the risk to catch malaria … the 170 who know that malaria is not caught like this presented themselves punctual at the departure together with our exceptional guest the Italian Ambassador in Zambia Pier Mario Daccò who with his Land Rover opened the race and picked up hurt athletes or pretending ones … Continue reading →

Eight girls in the first 10 of the 10 km!

It is true that we missed out the first place … but from the second down, apart from the ninth, the name Sport2build resounded non-stop in the parking lot of the Levy shopping mall … I think that the customers of the shopping mall must have thought of a stuck disc, or of the subliminal advertisement of something to buy somewhere on the shelves of the supermarket … but that Sport2build, Sport2build, Sport2build … was simply the realization of a job started almost seven years ago … where sport, done as much as possible well, becomes a tool for growth and social inclusion, and where we always insisted on the female presence … the CEO of Lafarge (the cement multinational which sponsored the marathon) was impressed by these young girls from 11 years old and above, with the agile and elegant stride despite the barefoot, who literally dominated the 10,000 … so much that he has promised to sponsor our next activities … hopefully he will keep his promise! Continue reading →

When I first came to Zambia, seven years ago, it was said that the first rain comes for
Independence  Day, the 24th October, this year in Kafue we are exactly a month late, there have been a couple of showers but nothing more. Today it is very hot, just after a couple of kilometers we see many athletes with the t-shirt in the hands and the sweat coming down from face and chest. The clouds are there but striking, when the wind pushes them under the sun they gift us a few minutes of shade which allows the boys and girls to breath. Like always when we arrive in Chaniana a lot of people comes at the sides of the road to cheer and offer water, Insist Maunga, home idol, was cheered along non-stop in the last kilometers which from the school take to the fishers’ port on the Kafue River. Insist, a program just in the name, runs with us since the beginning in the Juniors he was always among the first ones, now he is a constant presence in the first ten of the Seniors, where though he still misses the victory. His best race of the year was the test for the first Lusaka Marathon of next Saturday where he showed unexpected resistance which leaves us hoping for the best. Continue reading →