Online Reporter
Collin Matiza, Zimpapers Sports Hub
ONE of Zimbabwe’s top sprinters Makanakaishe Charamba has turned himself into a cult hero at Auburn University in the United States.
This follows the Zimbabwean Olympian being selected as the 2025 SEC Men’s Runner of the Year on Wednesday.
According to reports from Birmingham in Alabama, Auburn track and field senior Charamba and freshman Israel Okon were selected as the 2025 SEC Men’s Runner of the Year and SEC Men’s Freshman Runner of the Year, respectively.
Charamba, an Olympic finalist in the men’s 200m event in Paris last Summer for Zimbabwe, won the SEC individual title in the 200m with a time of 20,13 seconds.
His time was the fastest indoor 200m in the world this year and the world’s seventh fastest ever.
He broke the SEC Indoor Championships meet record as well as the Texas A&M facility record.
Charamba’s win in the event was Auburn’s first since American Olympian Coby Miller won in 2000.
Charamba holds the five fastest 200m times in Auburn history and is the programme’s first-ever male SEC Runner of the Year (indoors or outdoors).
“Charamba had an amazing season,” Auburn track & field head coach Leroy Burrell said.
“To finish the season with three competitions under 20,20 is some outstanding running. It is something that you do not see often with the indoor 200m.”
Competing in his first conference championships, Okon ran 6,51 in the preliminary round of the men’s 60m dash.
He matched the 24-year-old world Under-20 record ran by Mark Lewis-Francis of Great Britian in 2001.
He had the fastest qualifying time during the preliminaries, tied for the fastest time in the NCAA this year and broke the Auburn freshman record.
In the final, Okon claimed silver (6,55).
Charamba was named First Team All-SEC and Okon to Second Team All-SEC.
The men finished sixth overall, the highest team finish since 2013 and the most points (47) since 2011.
At their last outing, Charamba and Okon competed at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Virginia, Beach, Virgina, where both were awarded first team distinctions and helped lead the men to a third-place finish.
Charamba took silver in the 200m (20,16), delivering the programme’s best finish since Coby Miller won the individual title in 1999.
Okon finished second overall in the 60m, crossing in 6,52.
He was Auburn’s first freshman to run in the 60m at the indoor championships since Harry Adams in 2010.
First team distinctions were awarded to seniors Charamba and fellow Zimbabwean sprinter Vimbayi Maisvorewa, sophomores Kayinsola Ajayi and Ja’Kobe Tharp and freshman Okon.
Bongani Ndlovu