Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
THIS year would have marked the 34th anniversary of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) Four-Minute Mile, but the event was put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A brainchild of Allen Lang, who was the marketing manager at the then Bulawayo Bottlers, the event was previously known as the Coca-Cola $5 000 Four-Minute Mile Challenge, but it was rebranded to become part of the ZITF attractions. The Four-Minute Mile is by design or otherwise, exclusively run by male athletes.
There has never been any reasons given why female athletes are not allowed to participate in the event, but assumptions are that the organisers of the event, the Bulawayo Athletics Board, with corporate support from Delta Beverages through its Coca-Cola brand, felt that female athletes might not meet the set standard of finishing the race in less than four minutes, 30 seconds.
By virtue of that assumption, the event can be viewed as highly discriminatory of female athletes, especially since female runners have proved before that they too can be up for the challenge. Russian female athlete Svetlana Masterkova completed the race in four minutes 12.56 seconds in 1996 and her record stood for a good 23 years until 2019 when it was broken by Sifan Hassan from Netherlands, who romped home in four minutes 12.33 seconds. While the two female athletes are not Zimbabweans, their times have proved that it is possible for female athletes to do it. If organisers remain adamant that no female athlete can make the grade, the best they can do is to change the criteria to accommodate the fairer sex so that they too can be given an opportunity to sweat it out at the international exhibition.
In fact, the continued absence of female athletes in the ZITF Four-Minute Mile might be in direct conflict of the United Nations Human Rights Council 40th session resolutions agenda Item 3 which read:
‘Elimination of discrimination against women and girls in sports.’
It’s therefore prudent that the organisers and sponsors note the need and importance of making the ZITF Four-Minute Mile an all inclusive athletics competition instead of being an exclusively men’s event.
Online Reporter