Chadenga carries Zimbabwe’s last medal hopes at African Championships

Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter

UNITED States of America-based long jumper Kudakwashe Chadenga carries Zimbabwe’s last hope of any more medals at the African Senior Athletics Championships at the Cote d’Or National Sports Complex in Saint Pierre, Mauritius today (Sunday).

Chadenga is competing in the long jump final on the last day of the competition. Zimbabwe only have picked up one medal, the bronze won by the men’s relay team in the 4x400m. The Zimbabwean team that finished in 39.81 seconds, third behind silver medalists South Africa and winners Kenya was made up of Ngoni Makusha, Dickson Kamungeremu, Tapiwa Makarawu as well as Denzel Samuel.

Olympian Makusha yesterday competed and bowed out in the men’s 200m semifinals together with Makarawu. Before that Makusha had also gone as far as the semis in the 100m.

Zimbabwe sent 10 athletes to the African Championship and save for the bronze picked up by the men’s relay team, it has been a disappointing outing for the Zimbabwean team which returns home on Wednesday.

The African Championships were meant to be held in Algeria in 2020 but were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.