Online Reporter
Lovemore Dube in ACCRA, Ghana
ZIMBABWE athletics reached new heights on Sunday night when the men’s team won gold at the Senior African Championships held at the University of Ghana Sports Stadium, demanding more investment.
The gold medal triumph brought to an end an eventful championships in which the organisers faced several challenges like quality of food, cold water at the Games Village, poor results release and programming.
But all that counted for nothing for a determined quartet which has had a successful two and a half months on the road.
It’s a been a fairytale run for the four lads Dennis Hove, Leeford Zuze, Gerren Muwishi and finisher Thandazani Ndhlovu.
The Zimbabwe men’s 4x400m relay team won the nation’s first-ever gold medal relay in 3:01.11 at the African Senior Athletics Championships.
The previous best result had been a third-place finish in Mauritius.
On Sunday, Kenya were second in 3:01.34 while Morocco snatched the bronze medal in 3:01.35.
What made it a more memorable moment for Zimbabwe is that Botswana and South Africa, who were first and second at the World Relays in Botswana a fortnight ago, were in the same race and were blown out of the top three to introduce a new order in which Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ethiopia and Morocco will be there chasing alongside Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria.
Zimbabwe’s success was not a fluke result.
They laboured for it and deservingly took first place after months of hard work and travel in low-budget transport and accommodation, all sacrifices rewarded in Accra.
The race at some stage appeared under danger as rains pounded the facility at the neighbourhood of east Accra.
The Zimbabwe men’s quartet of Ndhlovu, Muwishi, Zuze and Hove set out to qualify and raced in Maseru, Lesotho, running a time of 3 minutes 03 seconds.
The National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe at the time said, Maseru was being used as a benchmark.
The boys then set out to Botswana, where they shattered the national record when they ran 3 minutes 0.69 seconds bettering the record of 3 minutes 0.79 seconds.
They were not yet done with track business.
The best came a fortnight ago when they ran 2 minutes 59.01 seconds, a new national mark, and secured qualification early for next year’s World Championships to be held in China’s city of Beijing.
“Winning Africa Championships is a great feeling, we worked hard for it,” said Muwishi after the race.
Ndhlovu said it was a victory well earned.
“We fought as a team and worked hard to get to this level,” said the finisher.
He said it was good to dedicate the win to injured 100m and 200m sprinter Methembe Tshuma.
Tshuma had two hours before the event and sent a warm good luck message from his hospital bed in Legon after Saturday’s nasty crash in which he broke his femur in a false start fall as he ground to a sudden halt following the sound of the gun.
Coach Lisimati, who has to be credited with sticking to his guns with the team after assembling it and running in Lesotho and Botswana, was all praise for his boys.
“It was not an accident, these boys have stuck together for a while and understand each other well. All are prepared to die for the team, which is what has been pushing them to achieve so much.
“Congratulations to the boys, they have broken new ground and now the world is looking at athletics destination Zimbabwe. It was all down to the spirit and commitment shown in their resilience in sacrificing so much and hunger to deliver,” said Lisimati.
For years the four will be celebrated for their heroism.
Zimbabwe brought home four medals, the best ever at this level with Hove bringing silver in the 400m men’s event and Ashley Miller, the hurdler, silver in the same distance.
Zuze won bronze as Zimbabwe made it a 2-3 finish in the 400m, the first by Zimbabwe at that level.
The team is due to arrive in Zimbabwe this morning.
