Athletics recovering from Covid setback

Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter

ZIMBABWE will not only improve in terms of the number of athletes they send for international events, but the number of medals as well if more emphasis is put on the training of coaches specifically at grassroots level.

National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) director of coaching and talent identification Lisimati Phakamile says the country has begun to pick up from the two-year setback which was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Phakamile was speaking at the end of a series of World Athletics (WA) courses which ended on Friday at White City Stadium in Bulawayo. The first course was a Level Two course focusing on middle, long distance and race walking.

It was run by German coach Lange Gunter and Naaz president Tendayi Tagara. Gunter also went on to conduct another course named the MicroCycle. Phakamile ran the third course which is the Cesc Level 1 coaching course. It was attended by 18 participants.

“The Level 1 course is meant to equip grassroots coaches. With this one we targeted school teachers because these are the people who train our upcoming athletes. Therefore, it’s important to equip these people with the correct training methods.

“Right now, we don’t have a big number going for the World Championships but once we improve the coaching at grassroots level we could see an improvement in numbers. It’s a positive that we have three athletes who are based here in Zimbabwe.

That only goes to show the huge potential we have as a country. The World Championships are due to take place from August 19 – 27 in Budapest, Hungary.”

Zimbabwe are going to field four athletes — three marathon runners — Isaac Mpofu, Ngonidzashe Ncube (men’s marathon) and Fortunate Chidzivo in the women’s category. They will be joined by United States-based sprinter Tapiwa Makarawu, who qualified for 200m. The qualification window for events is now closed and the focus has been on ensuring the athletes are ready for the competition.

The marathon runners have been in camp in Harare under the guidance of head coach for middle and long distance Benson Chauke while Makarawu has been working in his base.

Naaz had hoped some of their sprinters based in the United States would make the cut through the world ranking at the close of the qualification period after missing the qualifying times to add to the four but none of their hopefuls made the grade.