Online Reporter
Collin Matiza-Zimpapers Sports Hub
ONE of Zimbabwe’s top female track stars, Ashley Miller Kamangirira, will once again fall under the international spotlight when she competes in the Doha Wanda Diamond League in Qatar tonight.
The 28-year-old US-based ace hurdler is ready to bring the house down in the women’s 400m hurdles, facing an absolute powerhouse field of global talent.
According to the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, she will be lining up against elite competition, including Slovakian Emma Zapletalova (World Championships bronze medalist), Jamaican Rushell Clayton (World Championships bronze medalist and Olympic top eight finisher), and Oluwakemi Adekoya, who is a Nigeria-born track and field athlete who competes for Bahrain.
The women’s 400m hurdles field also includes Germany’s Eileen Demes, Nigerian-Italian Ayomide Florunso, Gianna Woodruff of Panama, and Norway’s Amalie Iuel.
With a blazing personal best of 54.08, Kamangirira is not just chasing a spot on the podium — she’s hunting down a faster time to seal her qualification for the World Championships in Beijing, China, next year.
In the men’s 200m event, another top Zimbabwean sprinter, Makanakaishe Charamba, will look to build on the momentum of his recent 19.88 personal best at the Lone Star Grand Prix. The US-based Zimbabwean, who is unbeaten over 200m so far this season, takes on South Africa’s Sinesipho Dambile and Alexander Ogando of the Dominican Republic.
Originally scheduled for early May, the Doha meeting was moved to June and will now bring together some of the strongest fields of the season so far, including several events featuring global champions.
But all eyes tonight will be on Kamangirira when she lines-up against some of the world’s top female hurdlers in the 400m event.
At the recent African Senior Championships in Accra, Ghana, she finished fourth in the 400m and won silver in the 100m hurdles.
Kamangirira, born in Moscow, Idaho, in the United States, also won a bronze medal at the 2023 African Games in Ghana in the 100-meter hurdles. She is Zimbabwe’s national record holder for the women’s 400m hurdles.
Her father, Felix Kamangirira, is a former Zimbabwean national team sprinter, who ran over 200 meters and 400 metres during the 1990s.
Her American mother, Jan Miller, also participated in athletics at the University of Idaho, where her parents met.
She earned a full scholarship to the University of Texas before later transferring to graduate in interdisciplinary studies from Florida State University.
