daniel chigunwe
Sports Reporter
NATIONAL Athletics Association of Zimbabwe president Tendayi Tagara is confident of an exciting event when the Track and Field Inter-provincial Championships roar into life this morning at White City Stadium in Bulawayo.
The national meet will feature the country’s top athletes from various provinces with more than 300 athletes expected to be part of today’s programme.
The meet is also the final selection event for the Africa Senior Championships team.
Tagara said they are hopeful of a good competition with both seniors and juniors competing.
“We are expecting a good competition at White City Stadium.
“We are also looking at this as a final selection competition for the Africa Senior Championships that will take place in Cameroon, and again we expect the Under-20 athletes to be there.
“We have also encouraged provinces to field juniors in their teams so that those who are close to qualifying might have a chance. The more qualified athletes we have the better,” said Tagara.
NAAZ brought in an expert from South Africa to work on their electronic timing system ahead of the championships.
“We are hoping that the electronic timing system will work after hiring a person from South Africa who is an expert in management of the Time Tronics equipment.
“They arrived in Zimbabwe on Thursday. It was not working for some time.
“This means it becomes easier for our athletes, rather than going to Zambia, Botswana, they have their own system. They can qualify here. It was expensive for athletes to travel outside the country.
“The expert, he is making it in a way that part of the component becomes mobile so that we can move it to Harare for competitions,” Tagara said.
It is likely to be close contest between hosts Bulawayo and defending champions Harare.
They are both fielding more athletes compared to other provinces with Bulawayo indicating they have a team of about 55 athletes while Harare are fielding 50 athletes.
The defending champions have made it clear they will be out to retain the title when they take it to the track and field.
Bulawayo Athletics Board chairperson Partson Madanyika said all provinces have confirmed participation with Masvingo being the last one to enter their team.
“All the provinces will be represented now. Masvingo was the last province to send their athletes although they have got a small team. I think they have got about 15 athletes and that’s the smallest team.
“We have registered about 350 athletes both on track and field events.
“The quality is good; the quality is high. We have got athletes who participated at the African Games that was held in Ghana. So they are fit, they are fast, I think they will be pushing these junior athletes to make the grade.
“This time we don’t have any foreign athletes, but we have our foreign-based athletes who are in the country.
“In Bulawayo I think we have got two, one is based in South Africa, that is Tafadzwa Mhlanga for shot put.
“In the hurdles women we have got one Zinzile Gumpo, who is based in the United States of America. She is on scholarship,” said Madanyika.
Some of the athletes that were at the African Games include sprinters Dickson Kamungeremu and Gerren Muwishi who will be representing Harare and Midlands respectively.
Madanyika said they are hoping the electronic timing system will be up and running on time.
“Right now we are working on it, we are trying to repair this and that but we hope it will work, definitely it will work and I think on its own it’s a morale booster for the athletes.
“We are also expecting the junior athletes to run qualifying times for the World Junior Championships,” said Madanyika.
Today’s event is being sponsored by Baldmin Holdings.
“We are also happy that Baldmin Holdings have come back on board again to assist us on this event to the tune of US$10 000 towards this event. So we appreciate the support,” Tagara said.
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