Online Reporter
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
THE National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (NAAZ) administration has hit the ground running ahead of an envisaged tight schedule in the 2026 season where coaches and officials will undergo several refresher courses, while athletes also face the daunting task of contesting in a number of national, regional and international competitions.
In Manicaland alone, NAAZ has already rolled out plans to have the highly rated Technical Officials Education Certification System (TOECS) set for February 12 to 14 in Chipinge.
The Coaches Education Certification System (CECS) is also on the NAAZ calendar, and will he held from March 26 to 29 at Sakubva Primary School in Mutare.
Manicaland Athletics Board (MAB), an affiliate of NAAZ, through their chairman, Joshua ‘ZESA’ Matume, confirmed that they will have several refresher courses for athletes and officials.
“We are happy with the groundwork that we have done so far in preparation of the courses that we will be hosting this year as well as the competitions that we are eyeing. We will be starting with the TOECS and CECS courses that are set for Chipinge and Mutare, respectively. This is just the start as we will have many more courses during the course of the year.
“These are internationally recognised courses that have always helped us to run our events smoothly. They ensure professionalism during our events and we will continue maintaining the standards, if not improving from where we are,” said Matume.
Matume said they are aiming at retaining all the competitions hosted last year.
“We are very grateful to the sponsors we had last year, and it is our hope that we will not be able to maintain the events that we had from last year, but add more,” he said.
NAAZ president, Tendai Tagara, weighed in saying they have decentralised the courses in order to reach out to as many participants as possible, while leaving no place and person behind.
“We are expecting more coaches and officials to come from the schools, prison service, army, universities and colleges. We have set most of our courses in the second half of January so that they catch up with school athletics calendar, where our youth and juniors are bases,” he said.
Tagara said local athletes, who perform well will once again have an opportunity to get regional and international exposure through a number of events set for 2026.
“This year we are seized with many junior international events such as the Southern Region Juniors Championships in Mauritius and Lesotho as well as the World Juniors event. We also have Africa Seniors in Ghana. It is our hope that our local athletes will seize this opportunity by performing well to earn a ticket to partake in some of these regional and international events,” said Tagara.
