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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
NGONIDZASHE Ncube, Isaac Mpofu and Ethel Sibanda, who have been shortlisted to represent the country in the 2020 Olympics marathon, are set to participate in the Harry Gwala Half Marathon in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, on Saturday.
The event is part of the team’s preparations for the Tokyo Olympics and Naaz president Tendai Tagara said this is part of their speed work training for the Olympic marathon, which they will run in July.
“We have engaged top South African marathon coach Henrick Ramaala to work with the team. He is a former South African marathon runner, who will work with them on speed and pacing. We want our athletes to be exposed to the best coaches for them to excel,” said Tagara.
An athlete needs that extra mile to train under the guidance of the best and Tagara said they need to be surrounded by a big a team of experts to perform at that level.
“It’s not easy to run 2 hours 11 minutes and that’s what we are chasing to qualify for the Olympics. We want them to go back to South Africa at the end of March to work with the same coach and run a 10km race for speed before they go to the Netherlands to run on 19 April,” said Tagara. – @innocentskizoe
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