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Ellina Mhlanga
Senior Sports Reporter
HEAD coach for junior and youth teams, Briad Nhubu, has challenged the young athletes to take their participation at the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe Track and Field Inter-provincial Championships seriously.
The meet will be held tomorrow at White City Stadium.
Nhubu said the national competition serves a number of purposes, including selection of teams for regional and international competitions. For this year, the juniors have the World Under-20 Championships in August and some are pushing for qualification.
“Firstly, we expect these juniors to attend the Inter-Provincial Championships, which is NAAZ’s most important meet for the year, where all the 10 provinces will be sending athletes to participate.
“The NAAZ Inter-provincial is the most important competition for the federation and it serves quite a number of things, among others it is a platform for selection of those athletes that will be performing very well.
“So, we get this as opportunity to pick those who can represent the country for various competitions, regional and international, both junior and senior.
“It’s a very important meet, where I would want to encourage all the juniors who will be representing their provinces to take this competition seriously because it’s also valued in terms of our selection for various competitions.”
He added:
“Taking it seriously will mean those that are going to post good times, distances and heights will be shortlisted for the various championships that will be coming forth.
“Also, we are saying they can be able to improve on their performances through this championship since all the best athletes of the country will be taking part.
“And, also, this is giving those who have qualified for Junior Championships an opportunity to prepare thoroughly, where they will be competing with other top athletes who will give them stiff competition.”
The World Under-20 Championships will be held in Lima, Peru from August 27 to 31.
“We still have other athletes who are looking forward to qualifying and this meet is very critical in showing us the direction of those that have potential, whom we think can also attend other competitions for qualifying. It could be in South Africa, Botswana and Zambia.
“Probably, this will also give them more opportunities to meet the qualifying standards, distances, heights and also the speed.”
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