Mozambican President...........

.................Filipe Nyusi declared on Saturday that the country’s school games should become permanent activities so that young Mozambicans can occupy their necessary place in national sport, which is clamouring for quality and competitiveness.Nyusi was speaking in Pemba, capital of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, at the opening ceremony of the 12th Edition of the School Games. This year, there are 1,347 athletes from schools in all 11 provinces, competing in football, volleyball, basketball, handball, gymnastics, athletics, chess and traditional games.

Nyusi invited Mozambicans to invest in school sports, since it was here that future word class athletes could be found.In the past there had been no follow-up to the school games. “We have a duty to understand why our national teams, in almost all sports, consist of athletes enlisted by chance, and are not the fruit of consistent and systematic follow-up of talents”, he said.“From the first edition of the School Games in 1978, the National Festivals of School Games are not just the display and climax of our school sports, but show that we really do have youth who are capable of offering the joy that Mozambicans always long for”, the President said.He argued that school sport should be a permanent activity from primary school to university, and that the value chain from the schools to the national sports federations must be cared for through investment in coaches, infrastructures and equipment.Young Mozambicans, Nyusi added, should draw inspirations from such stars as Chiquinho Conde in Football, Lurdes Mutola in athletics, Clarisse Machnguana in basketball or Lucas Sinoia in boxing.

He expressed his hope that from the Pemba games young people would emerge who, in a few years time, would be wearing the colours of the national team in various sports. For this to happen, those young athletes needed to find the due attention and care from the government, from society and from their own parents. He suggested that the organizers of the games, should, in two or four years time, check on the progress of each of the student athletes taking part.After the inaugural ceremony, the games began, opening with a football match between Gaza and Cabo Delgado provinces. To the surprise of the audience, the teams had a few extra players. Nyusi himself descended from the podium to join the Gaza team, while the Ministers of Education, Jorge Ferrao, and of Youth and Sport, Alberto Nkutumula, strengthened the side from Cabo Delgado.Although he and the two ministers were only on the field for about five minutes, Nyusi showed that he remains athletic, and his brief moments with the ball delighted the reporters covering the event.Gaza won this inaugural match by two goals to zero.