daniel chigunwe
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, with all provinces expected to field their teams.
Nhubu said the national competition serves several purposes, including selection of teams for regionaal 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 meeting 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 several things, among others it is a platform for the selection of those athletes that will be performing very well. So we get this as an 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.
“Taking it seriously will mean those that are going to post good times, distances and heights will be short-listed for the various championships that will be coming forth.
“Also, we are saying they can be able to improve their performances through this championship since all the best athletes in 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 qualifying competitions. 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.
“So the potential hopefuls are having a very good preparation in terms of showing the attributes they have been preparing, whether they have acquired the best of what they were looking for,” added Nhubu.
Midlands Athletics Board chairperson Partson Muderedzi said they are preparing for the future.
They are fielding mostly Under-20s with Gerren Muwishi among the few seniors to lead the team.
Online Reporter