Two Japanese sports volunteers who were working as coaches at the Bindura University of Science Education’s National Sports Academy left the institution following the expiry of their contract in December 2018. The two, Messrs Kohen Yamamura and Yusuki Muroi were on second-ment as volunteer coaches for athletics and football respectively for two years under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The National Sports Academy Director, Mr Titus Zvomuya who worked closely with Mr Yamamura and Mr Muroi said the two coaches were a pleasure to work with. He added that they were not only competent in their areas of expertise but exhibited high levels of professionalism and dedication to duty during their stay.
The Japanese coaches were instrumental in most of the accomplishments BUSE registered in sport in 2018. In summary, the University scooped three gold medals in athletics at the African Union Region Five Games in Botswana in December 2018. The BUSE National Sports Academy athletes also participated in competitions held in Algeria (July 2018), Finland (July 2018), Nigeria (August 2018) and Argentina (October 2018). All these successes in athletics were a result of the effort Mr Yamamura exerted in carrying out his duties as an athletics coach.
In football, through Mr Muroi’s dedication and hard work, the university’s team remained unbeaten throughout the 2018 season. Mr Muroi also had an exclusive dexterity for talent identification. He managed to scout for talentees at Chipadze and Chipindura High Schools who made it into the Under 17 National Football team which participated in Cape Town and Zambia in 2018.
The University community is very confident that with the skills these Japanese coaches imparted to the talentees, the University team will make it to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Some of the talentees who were interviewed by the Meeting Point crew acknowledged that Messrs Yamamura and Muroi were an inspiration to them. They wished them success and good health in their future endeavours. They were entreating that JICA through the Japaneese Embassy in Zimbabwe would replace the Academy with coaches of Mr Yamamura and Muroi’s calibre.
