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Ellina Mhlanga–Senior Sports Reporter
IN a move expected to encourage athletes to aim higher, the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe are setting their own qualifying standards for athletes seeking to represent the country in various regional and continental competitions.
NAAZ president, Tendayi Tagara, said the idea is to ensure that they field competitive athletes in regional and continental competitions.
“We reflected on our performance for 2022 and what are our targets for 2023 as we look at the World Championships in Budapest as the major event, the African Games, Africa Junior Championships and we confirmed the standards that we have set as an association for athletes to travel to various competitions in Africa.
“We are setting our own standards so that when we send athletes, we send athletes with a possibility to get to the semi-finals and finals of an event rather than athletes who just go there for participation.
“Besides participation at Africa Senior Championships and at Africa Junior Championships, we want athletes to be in the finals, we want medallists,” said Tagara.
Tagara said they are hoping for the return of schools sport next year as it provides a platform for junior development and selection of national teams.
“We are hoping that the athletics season for schools will be back in 2023. We are hoping to send a big team to Zambia for the Africa Junior Championships in April, that’s our target.
“Generally, we are coming out of Covid — athletes, administrators and our partners are coming back to reinvigorate activities.
“Another positive development is we are having a triangular series for the juniors, which we will be unveiling soon and will be a supported event. We are hoping to get more partners coming in for road races and the track events,” said Tagara.
The national association recently held their annual meeting at their headquarters in Gweru where they deliberated on various issues including their targets for next year and approval of the constitutional amendments undertaken by the national association.
Among the major highlights on the amendments is the requirement that executive committee members serve a maximum of two continuous terms of office of four years each in one position, after which they become ineligible to serve in the same position but may contest for another position.
It is among the proposals made by the Sports and Recreation Commission to national associations.
“There were quite a number of issues that were discussed in the meeting and resolutions that we made.
“One was on the constitution that if registered by the Sports and Recreation Commission, with effect from the 2024 elections, a president who is elected will serve not more than two successive terms of office.
“There were about 26 items which the Sports and Recreation Commission recommended for all sports organisations in Zimbabwe to consider in their constitutions. So all those things were also looked into, and resolutions were that we also include those SRC proposals into our constitutions,” said Tagara.
The national association is set to get their new season underway in January.
Online Reporter