Chronicle Editor
Panashe Marijeni
DAVID Nyamufarira has broken the national indoor 60m record after running the event in 6,57 seconds in Texas, United States last week.
Could this be the birth of another sprint king?
Last year Tapiwanashe Makarawu had a great season finishing among the top three indoor athletes in the 200m in which he ran a season and personal best of 20,29 seconds and that was attested to as a world standard when he went on to set a national outdoor record of 19,93 in the outdoor season.
Nyamufarira has demonstrated that he has the potential to run a sub 10 second 100m and qualify for the Tokyo World Championships later this year.
His 6,57 seconds time bettered Gabriel Mvuvure and Ngoni Makusha’s previous time of 6,60m.
The time left him lying 12th in the world’s top times for 2025 and looks to be among athletes to watch out for and could be a key figure in Zimbabwe’s bid for the World Championships in the 4x100m relay.
One of the key aspects of Nyamurafira’s success has been his focus on the technical aspects of sprinting, particularly his starts.
He has spent countless hours trying to perfect his craft and he had an explosive take off and great acceleration as well as a strong finish to get first place.
With the national record under his belt, Nyamufarira’s sights should be in both the indoor and outdoor 200m finals.
The season’s fastest time has been 6,48 seconds run by Kishane Thompson of Jamaica ran on 18 January.
Makarawu, 21st in the world this year, appears to have started the way he started the 2024 season with yet another great indoor performance running 6,60 seconds to equal what was the old record held by Mvuvure and Makusha.
Last year Makarawu reached the Olympic 200m final, finishing seventh after scooping silver in the African Championships held in Douala, Cameroon.
Bulawayo boy Denzel Siamulela has also had a good year’s start in the 60m with his 6,65 seconds achieved on the same day with Nyamufarira. His effort leaves him 47th in the world, a fair measure of success and form.
Meanwhile, in the indoor 200m, Eric Erlandsson of Sweden leads the charts with a time of 20,43 seconds ran on 17 January in Sweden with Makarawu lying second in 20,48 seconds, outside his national record of 20,29 set last year where at one stage he was the world’s leading athlete over the distance.
In another feat, Makarawu lies 10th among the leading athletes in the 300m dash with a time of 33,01 seconds making him even a viable option for Zimbabwe’s 4x400m relay team bid for the World Championships.
Online Reporter