Zimbabwe to be at Games

Press, 17 March 1982, Page 1

Zimbabwe to be at Games

NZPA Bisbane A top Zimbabwe sports official has told Games officials that his country was making firm plans to compete in the Commonwealth Games at Brisbane, starting on September 30. Zimbabwe is one. of the 15 black * . African Commonwealth-. nations which had threatened to withdraw from the Games if New Zealand competed because of New Zealand's sports contacts with South Africa. The Zimbabwe team's general manager. Mr Eric Barbour. told officials that Zimbabwe, would send a team of 52 male and eight female competitors. 12 officials, and

five assistants to Brisbane, arriving on September 20 and leaving on October 11, a Games spokesman said. Mr Barbour, who managed the Zimbabwe Olympic team at Moscow, is the most influential black African representative to visit Brisbane since Mr Abraham Ordia, president of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa, who was in Brisbane in March last year.' The spokesman also said that 32 of the 56 invited countries had indicated that they would send teams to the Games, including four black African nations — Kenya, Uganda. Seychelles, and Zimbabwe.