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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
BULAWAYO Athletics Board (Bab) chairperson Manuel Mpofu will not contest for another term at the coming elective congress set for this month end.
The association’s elective annual general meeting will be held on November 28 at the Njube Lutheran Youth Centre. The meeting will also see the election of board members as well as the appointment of the auditors for the ensuing years. Clubs have up to November 13 to submit their nomination forms
Mpofu who has held the chairman’s post for nine years feels he has run his race.
“As l indicated at last year’s general meeting l will not be seeking another term of office. It is time for someone else to take over and bring in new ideas to take the association forward,” said Mpofu.
Mpofu’s athletics journey began at Sabi Mine Athletics Club in Zvishavane before he joined Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services as a prison officer in 1996. He joined the Matabeleland North Athletics Board as a fully affiliated member.
He took over as Bab chairman in 2011 following the resignation of the then chairperson Vusumuzi Mlilo due to ill health. In 2013 he was elected chairperson for a full four-year cycle, which ended in 2016 and was re-elected unopposed to run the association up to 2020.
When Bab was established in 2006, he was elected committee member and has been with the association ever since. During his tenure as chairperson, Mpofu has overseen the establishment of the Bab annual awards and staging of successful competitions.
Meanwhile, the National Athletics of Zimbabwe (Naaz) has wrote to government seeking approval to host their interprovincial championships at the end of this month.
The event was initially set for September 26 at White City Stadium but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite government lifting the inter-city travel ban which was largely threatening the event at that time, the association considered that athletes needed time to train before they could get back to the track leading to the deferral of the event.
Naaz is confident that they will hold the event this time around.
-@innocentskizoe
Online Reporter