Chronicle EditorInnocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) is planning to send some athletes to another Olympic qualifying event in South Africa next month.
The quartet of Munyaradzi Jari, Ngonidzashe Ncube, Isaac Mpofu and Fortunate Chidzivo represented Zimbabwe in the Xiamen Marathon and Tuscany Camp Global Elite Race this past weekend and missed qualification for the Tokyo Olympics, but all hope is not lost.
Naaz director of coaching, talent identification and development Lisimati Phakamile said they were already working on the athletes’ recovery programmes in preparation for more meets.
“We want them to rest a bit and see if we can get them a race in the month-end of May. Coaches have already spoken about the athletes’ recovery and came up with programmes for that. The athletes have worked hard and unfortunately they did not make the Olympic qualifying times, but as an association we are very happy because these guys managed to run their personal best times,” said Phakamile.
“In athletics, it’s not all about winning, but being able to achieve certain goals as an athlete and as a coach. Yes, we wanted to qualify, but you know when an athlete puts up their best performance, we actually celebrate with them and encourage them to do better next time.
After the long lay-off and the programmes that were in place, these guys actually did brilliantly.”
He said they were not giving up and hence the decision to send even more athletes to South Africa for purposes of motivation and encouragement.
From the weekend’s meet, the best result was by Ngonidzashe Ncube with a time of 2 hours 12 minutes 25 seconds in the full marathon, missing the qualifying time of 2 hours 11 minutes 30 seconds by less than a minute.
Isaac Mpofu posted a time of 2 hours 13 minutes 31 seconds and Munyaradzi Jari clocked 2 hours 17 minutes 44 seconds. — @innocentskizoe
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