THE Special Olympics annual meeting held at the weekend helped to put in the structures for the national association, chairman Harare lawyer Deepak Mehta has said. The Special Olympics board had their first meeting this year at the weekend to put in structures, which were ineffective for several years and Mehta said the meeting was a first step in the right direction for the association.

"We had a very successful annual meeting, which happened to be the first after being readmitted by the international board the Special Olympic International.

"The programmes for people with intellectual disabilities have been in the shadows after Zimbabwe's membership was temporarily suspended because the interim executive board that took over in 2008 failed to run sustainable events.

"The meeting made a platform to work on the coming year and we will come up with structures," said Mehta.

In a correspondence to Mehta last month, Special Olympic International chief regional, John Dow, gave Zimbabwe until December 31, 2013, to regularise their operations with the world body.

"I am pleased to inform you that Special Olympic International hereby grants official recognition to the Special Olympics Zimbabwe committee with immediate effect and continue through to December 31, 2013.

"With this recognition, Special Olympics Zimbabwe is granted the right to establish an accredited Special Olympic programme in Zimbabwe," said Dow. So I have seconded Charles Nyambe, the Special Olympics Africa Sports director, to help Zimbabwe revive their sports programmes for athletes with intellectual disabilities.