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Ellina Mhlanga, Harare Bureau
WITH athletics providing a big chunk of athletes in Team Zimbabwe to the African Games, coach Lisimati Phakamile says they are confident of doing well at the showpiece in Morocco.
Athletics has 15 athletes who will represent the country in track and field events and the team is scheduled to leave for Morocco on August 22.
The Games are running from August 16 to 31.
‘’The country has hope in us, as athletics, because of the numbers that we have, we have high chances of getting medals.
‘’And, if I am to consider the performances of our boys in the last Senior Africa Championships, we had finalists, and we hope that the same boys are going to perform and bring us medals.
“I am actually looking for, at least, five medals from our team, of which from the five I am looking for, at least, two gold medals from the relays and maybe one from the individual sprint events, where we can say the boys will surprise the nation, surprise Africa.
“Our sprint relay team has been performing very well, with a good strategy, with good training and performance we are very confident that we can take the relay race,” said Phakamile.
Some of the medal hopefuls from the team are sprinters Tatenda Tsumba and Ngoni Makusha.
They are currently in Belgium as part of their preparations.
They are also members of the 4x100m relay team, which is also expected to get a podium finish.
Apart from medals at the African Games, the coaches are also hoping some of the athletes will make the qualifying times for the IAAF World Championships in Qatar between September and October this year and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter