Pascalinah Kabi
MASERU — Lesotho Institute of Sports Association (Lisa)’s Under-17 football team was crowned Confederation of School Sport Associations of Southern Africa (Cossasa) champions last weekend.
Lesotho lifted the Under-17 trophy after winning three of their four matches.
The games were held in Windhoek, Namibia last Friday and Saturday.
Lesotho got their campaign off to a good start when they thrashed Zimbabwe 4-0 before beating Zambia 2-0.
The side went on to beat Botswana 4-3 before holding Namibia to a two-all draw in their last match.
By winning three matches and drawing one, Lesotho came tops with 10 points ahead of Botswana and Namibia who came second and third.
Zimbabwe were fourth while Zambia finished last on the log in the football category.
However, Lesotho came last on overall performance of the Cossasa games after collecting only one gold medal at the games.
Lisa public relations officer, Letsatsi Ntsibolane, told the Sunday Express the football team managed to collect gold because of their fitness level.
“The secret in Lesotho’s winning gold in football was that the boys competed during the August 17-19 Lisa and Copa Coca-Cola games from August 24 to 26. Their fitness level was still high during the Cossasa games,” Ntsibolane said.
He said other local teams, Under-17 volleyball and Under-13 football and netball teams’ fitness
levels were low because of lack of games.
“Unlike the football Under-17 side, other teams didn’t have any game play for almost three weeks prior to these games,” he said.
He the said Under-17 football team competed at the highest level before the Cossasa games.
“The team was also built of almost six Under-17 national football team (Bahlabani) players who brought a lot of experience into the team and that worked to our advantage,” he said.
The Under-17 volleyball team finished fourth after beating both Namibia and Zimbabwe 2-1 in their last matches of the competition.
Prior to the two games, Lesotho suffered a heavy defeat in its two opening matches against Zambia and Botswana.
It lost both matches by two goals to nil.
Zimbabwe won gold at nine points while Lesotho, Zambia and Botswana collected six points but Lesotho settled for fourth place after positions were decided on goal difference.
The Under-13 teams, in the netball and football categories, lost all their four matches.
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