Athletes gather for champs

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
ATHLETES from across the country return to the National Sports Stadium B Arena this morning for the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe track and field championships.

The national association held another meet two weeks ago.

Today’s competition is serving as a qualifier for various international and regional competitions such as the Olympic Games, Senior Africa championships and the World Junior championships.

The meet is also a preparatory event for those that have qualified for various competitions such as Tinotenda Matiyenga and Rutendo Chimbaru, who have already booked their spots at the World Junior championships scheduled for Poland, in July.

Chimbaru was the first to earn her ticket to the World Championships in 400m last month during the Nash championships in Mutare.

Matiyenga qualified in the 200m event held two weeks ago at the same venue.

Junior development coach, Silas Muringani, said they are targeting more athletes to qualify for the world junior competition.

“We are actually focusing on our athletes qualifying for the World Junior championships. We will be looking at the shape of the athletes.

“And our target is also to have athletes qualifying in the 100m, 200m and 400m probably, so that we are able to send a relay team for the World Junior Championships. So far we have one boy and a girl that have qualified for the World Junior Championships,” said Muringani.

Muringani said they are going to be finalising their team for the Regional Junior championships in Zambia during today’s competition.

“We are looking at finalising the team list for Zambia, for the Regional Junior Championship. We are also using this competition to fine tune our athletes going to compete at the Cossasa Games in Namibia in May.

“So it’s a preparatory event as well as a qualifying opportunity.

“We really need to send a strong team of 12 athletes for the World Junior championships. If we fail to send 12 at least 10 is not bad. So we are hoping to have athletes qualifying also in the middle distance,” said Muringani.

Muringani said they have the 10 000m and 5 000m events on offer for the seniors seeking to qualify for the Olympics.

“Apart from the juniors for our seniors there is also so much for them. We are selecting a team for the Senior Africa championships in Durban, South Africa.