SASCOC on Wednesday announced the team that will be participating at the eighth edition of the Africa Union Sport Council Region 5 U20 Games, previously known as Zone VI Games, which will be taking place in Gaborone, Botswana from 7-16 December 2018.

Team South Africa comprises 220 athletes from nine sporting codes namely: athletics (incl. visually impaired), basketball, boxing, football, judo, netball, swimming, tennis and volleyball.

The bulk of the squad will come from athletics, football, netball and swimming.

South Africa have in previous years dominated these Under-20 Games between the Region 5 countries which include: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland.

The games, which are held biennial on a rotational basis, were last held in Angola in 2016 and Team South Africa did us proud by retaining the first position on the medals table, bringing home a total of 123 medals.

The strong team comprises medalists from the just ended 2018 Youth Olympic Games, Dune Coetzee who won a silver medal in the Women 200m Butterfly and Michael Houlie gold in the Men 50m Breaststroke event.  Our Women’s football team are the defending champions.

Project Manager and Chef de Mission for the Team, Isaac Mdaka commented, “It’s a huge honor to lead this team of young talent to Gaborone. The Region V games have seen South Africa developing great athletes like the much-decorated 800m & 400m Olympic champions Caster Semenya and Wayde Van Niekerk.

“I have no doubt that these games will see more of our young stars putting their hands up on the big stage in the near future. I wish them all well and urge them to give their all on the field of play and also to act as great ambassadors for the rainbow nation, Mdaka concluded.”

SASCOC Acting CEO, Patience Shikwambana also wished the team well. ” I want to echo well wishes to our last youth team for the year to the Region V Games and we hope the results obtained at the Youth Olympic Games will inspire this group to obtain more medals for us.”

“This important year – 2018, we have been celebrating the centenary of Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu whose values encouraged excellence in sport, we hope that our athletes display and follow the good examples as they represent our nation and fly the flag high in Botswana,” added Ms Shikwambana.

Team SA for Region 5 Youth GamesGaborone 2018: