All roads lead to White City

Innocent Kurira

ATHLETICS fanatics in the city are in for a treat as the country’s provinces will converge at White City Stadium tomorrow for the inter-provincial championships. The event will be sponsored by Baldmin Holdings.

According to Bulawayo Athletics Board (Bab) chairperson Watson Madanyika, all is set ahead of the event.“Preparations have sailed smoothly.

All Provinces except Manicaland and Masvingo have sent in their teams as they are still wrapping up their lists. They have assured that they will be coming for the competition.

The response from the provinces has been positive and we are looking forward to a successful competition,” said Madanyika.Some of the outstanding performers will be picked for the Africa Senior Championships in Cameroon from 21-26 June.

According to the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz), the 100-200m events are set to be highly contested since the USA based athletes are ready to join the squad for Cameroon.

Naaz are hoping to have the electronic timing machine in place for the national finals. The electronic timing system has had limited use since its installation for the 2014 African Union Sports Council Region Five (5) Youth Games in the city.

An expert has been flown into the country to set up the system. He began work yesterday and will continue today with Naaz keeping their fingers crossed that the system will be functional.

The system includes a wireless false start detector, wind speed ultrasonic wind measurement, MacPhoto finish timing scoreboard, LED field scoreboard, starting blocks and video wall. Recently the MacPhoto finish line camera was in Belgium for repairs and should now be fully functional.