Chronicle Editor
Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
LOCAL athletes chasing for Olympic qualification are in a fix as most sporting bodies and some countries have cancelled gatherings to help curb the spread of Covid-19.
The coronavirus which causes the pandemic has infected more than 161 000 people and killed close to 6 000 worldwide.
Ethel Sibanda, Isaac Mpofu and Ngonidzashe Ncube were supposed to run in the Enschede Marathon in the Netherlands in mid-April, but it has been cancelled as Europe battles a sharp rise in infections.
Munyaradzi Jari and Fortunate Chidziwo were set to take part in the Hannover and Prague marathons in Germany and the Czech Republic respectively, but the two events have been cancelled, as most European countries go into lockdown and airlines restrict flights.
Rutendo Nyahora is scheduled to run in the Vienna Marathon in Austria at the end of April, but everything points to it being cancelled.
The Olympic qualifying time for the women’s marathon has been set at 2 hours 29 minutes and 30 seconds, while the men’s time is 2 hours 11 minutes and 30 seconds.
National Athletics’ Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) president Tendai Tagara says cancellation of these events has left his association in a dilemma.
“Our marathon qualifying plan has been thrown into tatters by the coronavirus. All earmarked races for our athletes are cancelled or postponed. It’s not all marathons that have qualifying conditions, hence athletes and management have races that they target,” said Tagara.
The affected runners have previously made the Olympic qualification times and Naaz was confident they would again qualify.
“The dilemma with marathons is that the IAAF set the qualifying period to end in May. This means if races are postponed to June, they won’t serve the Olympic purpose.” — @innocentskizoe
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