daniel chigunweEllina Mhlanga
Senior Sports Reporter
IT’S been a long and tough road for most local athletes seeking qualification to the World Athletics Championships but finally Zimbabwe had triple jumper Chengetayi Mapaya making the grade over the weekend.
Mapaya earned his ticket to the World Championships last Friday when leaping 17.26m during the NCAA Championships. It was his personal best.
The world meet is scheduled to run from July 15 to 24 in Eugene, Oregon, United States.
The United States-based triple jumper has had promising performances previously but missed out qualification to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics due to an injury.
And rising from the disappointment to qualifying for the World Championships just proves his capability.
National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe president, Tendai Tagara, saluted Mapaya for his latest achievement.
“I am happy with the qualification of Mapaya in the triple jump. We were expecting (this) as a nation if you look at the progression the whole year.
“And again it justifies and cements our selectio≠≠≠n on giving him a scholarship because athletes on scholarship must perform to that level and to them qualifying for World Championships and Olympics should be just automatic.
“So by qualifying for this year’s World Championships, it gives him confidence to qualify for next year’s World Championships and the Olympics because he will be on Olympic Scholarship and will be well looked after.
“I am happy that we have also assisted to make sure that he stays in USA after his school. He will be turning professional which is a good indication that he is serious with his athletics,” said Tagara. Mapaya was part of the team that represented the country at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
He is the only athlete from Zimbabwe that has qualified for next month’s World Championships.
However, Tagara believes there is still room for at least one or two more athletes to qualify as the qualification period deadline gets closer. The window closes on June 26.
“Basically we are expecting one or two more athletes to qualify, there is still time. We will look into it and try to look statistically where they are. But we are happy having a qualified athlete rather than sending representatives to the World Championships.
“It’s a good indication that after Covid, things are starting to change, athletes, the environment is opening for them,” said Tagara.
Tagara also said it was encouraging to note some improved performance at the Africa Senior Championships after the men’s 4x100m relay team won a bronze medal at the meet that ended on Sunday.
“Encouraging performance, especially the youngster (Tapiwa) Makarawu and Denzel (Simusialela). They showed that the future is good. The two battle-hardened Makusha and Kamungeremu really built their confidence,” Tagara said.
Team coach Lisimati Phakamile said there were some positives they picked during the Africa Championships and would want to build on that going forward.
“The team managed to get a medal of which that is positive and impressive. We build on that as we managed to integrate juniors who gained very valuable experience.
“We still have a lot of work to do as a country but the future is very bright for athletics.
“Our local athletes performed exceptionally well at these games and the quality of performance we have locally has greatly improved and impressive,” said Phakamile.
The team is expected back home tomorrow.
Online Reporter