dyton mupawaenda
Ellina Mhlanga-Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Olympic Committee president Thabani Gonye says they are doing all they can to ensure athletes are prepared for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Games are scheduled for July 26 to August 11.
Zimbabwe has two athletes — Isaac Mpofu (athletics) and Stephen Cox (rowing) who have so far qualified. Both athletes are part of the 10 recipients of the Olympic Solidarity Scholarships.
The other athletes on the programme are still in the qualification process.
Gonye said they have classified the two athletes that have qualified to be in a separate tier in terms of the support structure.
“Well, the preparation as a country we start and say, what has happened is we have two athletes that have qualified. That is Isaac and Stephen.
“And in our reconfiguration of preparation at our last general assembly, the information was put in very clearly that we needed to classify the two athletes that have qualified at a separate tier in terms of our support structure. And what we need to do for them, to give them the most enabling preparation plan.
“And that is something that has already been done and we have their budgets that have also been shared with the parent Ministry and they are working to make sure that we are going to do our very best.
“So that’s the first level of tier, of those that have qualified. We have done our best but we can do more with all the partners that are to come on board,” said Gonye.
Mpofu is in camp in Harare under the guidance of seasoned coach Benson Chauke and Cox is training at the Sydney Rowing Club in Australia.
“As for Stephen, we went into a bigger cooperation agreement in which we are working with the Australian NOC and also with partners in Australia.
“So we are very clear, the plan is there. We want these plans not to be only for a few weeks but to be sustained through to the Games.
“So certainly we are very clear about where we are going but we need all the partners to come and support the athletes. It’s really about the athletes,” Gonye said.
The National Olympic Committee is still expecting some of the athletes on the Olympic Scholarship programme to qualify.
They are also working with the likes of South Africa-based marathon runner Rutendo Nyahora, who is set to compete at the Vienna City Marathon in April and they are hopeful some of the athletes based in the United States, make the qualifying standards in various events.
Golfer Scott Vincent is also among the hopefuls.
“We are still expecting a few that we are supporting through the Olympic Scholarship funding. We believe we will still have a few more, I think three or four we still believe can qualify from the various disciplines.
“But we are also looking at a bigger frame of preparation where we know we have several athletes that are in the US. They will have a season, the NCAA season that is coming up. We still expect a few to qualify.
“In Isaac’s preparing and training, he is also training with a few marathoners, which we believe will also create momentum for the marathoners to ride on his preparation to try and qualify. So I will still project that it’s still possible to get several eight.
“We challenged ourselves to double what we had in Tokyo from five to 10. If we fall short, if we get seven, if we get 100 percent, if we get more then the better,” said Gonye.
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