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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
BULAWAYO might field more than two athletes per event inthe National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) Inter-provincial Championships set for November 29 at White City Stadium if other provinces fail to send participants.
Tendai Tagara, the Naaz president said, communication has been sent to provinces to confirm how many athletes they will send to the championships, so the association can make contingency should they be having challenges in coming up with squads.
Naaz has also asked the Bulawayo Athletics Board (Bab) to have extra athletes on standby.
“These are open championships where juniors can challenge seniors, but because of the strict Covid-19 protocols, we have limited the number of participants to two per event in both the men’s and women’s categories. This will ensure that we have a strong field of highly competitive participants. We know some provinces might have challenges in fielding athletes in certain events, hence we’ve asked them to communicate with the host province so that if there are openings, Bulawayo takes up those slots,” said Tagara.
The championships were initially set for September, but were postponed after Naaz failed to get Government clearance. They will be held under strict Covid-19 guidelines.
Only five track events; 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 5 000m, will be staged on the day, with each of the country’s 10 provinces fielding two athletes in both the men’s and women’s categories. This means 20 athletes will compete in each event.
Relays and field events have been scrapped. – @ZililoR
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