HARARE - The Zimbabwean delegation found no medal joy at the just ended Summer Youth Olympics Games in Nanjing, China after all 10 of the country’s athletes fell through in various disciplines.
Having arrived at the 2nd Summer Youth Olympics with no medal expectations, the team will not be surprised by the results that saw them fail to leave a mark at the international multi-sport event.
They will, however, hope the exposure gained from competing with their age-mates will spur them on in their quest to better their times.
Zimbabwean rider Sophie Teede had a decent run in the individual jumping event, finishing fourth on points, but because of ties was ranked 12 out of the 30 riders.
Teede, who is a student at Hellenic Academy, went out together with her adopted horse, Caesar en route to amassing eight penalty points.
Australian-based swimmer Robyn Lee found the going tough, failing to qualify through heat 1 of all three of the individual races she competed in – the Women's 100m Backstroke, Women's 50m Butterfly and Women’s 100m Butterfly .
South African-based swimmer Chad Idensohn enjoyed better progress, reaching the semi-finals of the Men's 50m Freestyle and the Men's 50m Butterfly.
Zimbabwe’s rowing duo, Daniella Du Toit of Chisipite Senior School and Kyle Hinde of St John’s College enjoyed good runs in their individual races.
Du Toit qualified for the Women’s B semi-final through a second place finish in the repêchage race.
However, she missed a spot in the final as she finished in sixth place hence she moved on to the B Final.
Having gone through to the B final where she registered a time of 4:01.83 and finished third, Du Toit placed 9 out 24 rowers overall.
Kyle Hinde competed in the D final, finishing second in a time of 3:44.22 in the Men’s Single Scull event.
Zimbabwe’s junior middle distance runner Enlitha Ncube finished second in the Women's 3000metres Final B in a time of 9:51.06.
Ncube, who attends Msilahobe Secondary School in Silobela, was seven minutes behind winner Soukaina Belil of Morocco.
Titus Nyati made a personal best of 8:37.82 on his way to claiming fifth in the Men's 3000m Final B.
In triathlon, Serena Rendell went all the way to the final before finishing number 31 in the Women's Final.
This was after the Peterhouse Girls’ pupil completed her swim, bike and run disciplines in one hour, ten minutes and 10 seconds.
Her time was some ten minutes and 14 seconds behind winner Brittany Dutton of Australia.
Zimbabwe’s national junior triathlete champion Drew Williams finished 29th in the junior men’s final with a time of in one hour, one minute and 58 seconds out of the 32 triathletes.
Drew completed in his swim, bike and run in 10:46 (30), 42:16 (24) and 1:01:58 (28).
Mary Joy Mudyiravanji punched above her weight in heat 1 and heat 2 to qualify for the Women’s 1500m A Final.
The 17-year-old went onto to claim sixth place with a time of 4:28.92.