Chronicle Editor
Grace Chingoma, Harare Bureau
BINDURA University of Science Education’s sprinter Leon Tafirenyika’s dream at the Universities World Cup in Napoli, Italy, ended in agony after he failed to complete his 200m event in the semi-finals on Friday night.
The 23-year-old pulled a hamstring on the 50m bend.
Tafirenyika had stormed into the semi-finals with his personal best of 21.42s but nothing came out from that effort after he sustained an injury.
However, Tafirenyika is not burying his head in the sand and believes he did well at the Universiade Summer Games where he impressed with two semi-final appearances in the 200m and 400m events respectively.
“My participation here was not bad.
“I did my new personal best. I also managed to get a place in the semi-finals for both races.
“I believe participating at this level is going to make a difference because I learnt a lot of things which I didn’t know by just competing at this level,” he said.
Tafirenyika was one of the two university students who represented the Zimbabwe Universities Sports Association at the Summer Games.
The two athletes thus Tafirenyika and tennis player Thembela Ndlovu were funded through the International University Sports Federation facility reserved for associations mostly African.
ZUSA were forced to send those two only after local universities who usually meet the expenses of their athletes struggled to raise foreign currency forcing ten athletes who had qualified for the Universities World Cup to abort the trip.
Online Reporter