A thin line between winning and losing

Events in recent weeks have reminded me once again how little the difference between winning and losing in sport really is.

The case was proven both locally and internationally recently.

First case in point is the athletes that took part in the Regional Youth Championships in Harare last weekend.

The group came home with nine medals but were ranked sixth overall at the event which saw nine countries competing.

That in itself doesn’t say much but when you consider that Botswana only won five medals but were placed second while Zambia, who were ranked third, only had three medals to their name a whole new picture is painted.

Add to that the fact that Zimbabwe, who had 11 medals, was ranked fourth while Mauritius, who also claimed three medals, was ranked fifth.

Now if the amount of medals collected was the only determining factor, then based on the above Namibia would have ended third behind South Africa, who collected 41 medals, and Zimbabwe.

However, the countries that were ranked above Namibia had one thing in common.
They all had won gold medals unlike Namibia, who could only manage four silver medals and five bronze medals.

This means that had the athletes been able to convert some of those second place finishes into gold medals everything could be so different.

As it stands, even though the difference between us and the rest of the teams was marginal, most people will only remember we came sixth.

The second case, which hammers the point home even harder, occurred at the French Open where Serena Williams blew a huge lead to succumb to a first round defeat.

Serena was leading 6-4, 5-1 in the second set, when the French player, Virginie Razzano somehow found strength to fight back and claim the match 4-6, 7-6(7-5), 6-3.

Reports after the match suggested that Razzano had spent a great deal of time watching Serena and had never once given up the hope that she can win the game.

The above cases, therefore, suggest that a little bit of tenacity and believe can separate winners from losers and that is what all athletes must aspire to.