Athletics flop in Ukraine

Infact, no one from the eight-member team managed to reach the final in any event at the championships that attracted some of the best Under-17 athletes from across the world.

Before leaving for Ukraine last week, team coach Bright Nhumwa had said they were using the event to expose the youth to high class competition in possible preparation for the Olympic Games in 2016.

Nhumwa said they were pushing to have their athletes reach either the semi-finals or the finals of their events.
At the end of the competition, the team was met with mixed fortunes as Michael Songore proved once again to be a star in the making when he reached the semi-finals in his 100m and 200m events.

In the 100m heats, the Peterhouse pupil set a personal best of 10.72s as he finished second in his heat behind Micheal O’hara of Jamaica but finished fifth in the semi-finals.
During the 200m heats, Songore also set a PB of 21.60s in the heats but was a slower 21.81s in the semi-finals as he settled for 6th place.

Sean Banda also achieved a personal best of 22.70s in the men’s 200m from his heat two although he was eliminated in the first round.
The individual medley team that included Songore, Banda, Tatenda Matesanwa failed to reach the semi-finals as they clocked 1.57.77s in the qualifiers.
Yvonne Vanhuvaone also failed to progress beyond the first round in the women’s 400m.

At the end of the youth championships, Jamaica finished at the top of the table with six gold medals and two silvers while Kenya were second with four golds in their total of 11 medals. Kenya performed better than the United States, China and Great Britain.

Harare Athletics Board secretary Silas Muringani, who was closely following the event from home, believed the athletes did their best under the circumstances.
“As Zimbabwe, we are still trying to develop our athletics and we have limited resources both in terms of equipment and funding as compared to other developed countries.
“This was a learning curve for the athletes and I think they could have done better if we had some on athletics’ scholarship in the United States and Europe.