Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
A HIGH-LEVEL World Athletics (WA) coaching course that will be held in Bulawayo next month has drawn interest from foreign participants.
Twenty coaches will attend the 10-day WA Coach Education and Certification System Level 1 course at White City Stadium from September 16-25.
Tendai Tagara, the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) president, said five participants from Botswana had registered for the programme and they had also received inquiries from Kenya.
Participants will cover all basics of athletics in the course, ranging from track and field programmes as well as medium and long-distance training.
Tagara challenged local athletics coaches to register for the course and capacitate themselves.
“This is a good programme for athletics, especially those interested in grassroots coaching like schools. For this programme, there’s no specialisation, but you cover every detail of athletics. After completing the WA Coach Education and Certification System Level 1, one will be qualified to coach beginners up to the Under-18s,” said Tagara.
“As an association we’ve been pushing in the last few years for such WA programmes to be held in our country, so that we train more people. Since this is an international programme, we’re allowed to take foreign participants. Our wish is to have more locals so that they are capacitated and we will be guaranteed that after completion of the programme, they will contribute towards the development of Zimbabwean athletics.”
Course fees have been set at US$250 and coaches are required to pay a US$50 deposit to secure a slot.
Tagara said they are waiting for WA to recommend another facilitator to work with Naaz’s director of coaching and talent identification development Lisimati Phakamile.
Zimbabwe has two WA qualified facilitators, Phakamile and Tagara, who has ruled himself out of the course due to other pressing commitments. — @ZililoR
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