Thousands of people attended Silver Jubilee of Zimbabwean independence at the National Sports Stadium in Harare on Monday.

The celebrations turned out to be one of the most unifying factors the nation has had since independence in 1980.

The National Stadium is the traditional venue for the annual independence celebrations held on April 18 every year.

The event was a colourful one with children dominating most of the mass displays.

This was a fitting close to the celebrations that have been going on for the past few weeks.

One of the major ones was the conferment of awards and honours to some of its greatest athletes in the last 25 years.

More than 50 athletes received Silver Jubilee medals.

Among them were 2004 Olympic Games gold, silver and bronze medallist swimmer Kirsty Leigh Coventry, 1980 Olympic Games Hockey "Golden Girls" team and the men's senior national soccer team for qualifying for last year's African Cup of Nations finals in Tunisia.

Source: Xinhua