adminSprinters Tinashe Mutanga and Dumisani Bhebhe managed to qualify for the 7th edition of the World Junior Championships set for Barcelona, Spain in July.
Bhebhe qualified for both the men’s 100m and 200m events while Mutanga made it into the 200m event at the weekend. In the men’s 100m, Bhebhe stopped the clock in 10.59s and was third behind the South African pair of Siphelo Ngqabazi who won in 10.35s and Fana Mafokeng on 10.48s.
Mutanga ran the event in 10.74s and missed on the electronic qualifying time that was set at 10.64s.
However, Mutanga made amends in the 200m when he clocked 21.20s to get the silver medal while Bhebhe was third on 21.24s.
Ngqabazi again won the gold medal in 20.87s and the time was within the 21.55s set standard.
There was also a good performance from Sithulisiwe Zhou who won two gold medals in the women’s middle distance but still failed to qualify for the World Championships.
Zhou came first in the 1500m as she ran 4 minutes 41.69s and this was outside the standard set at 4 min 28.00s.
She also won another gold from the 3 000m as she stopped the clock in 10 min 84s although this was not good enough to beat the qualifying time of 9 min 35s.
Another middle distance runner Trymore Kanzara also added another gold from the men’s 5000m as he clocked 14 min 55.17s. His time was outside the required standard of 14 min 15s.
The Zimbabwean team also got a bronze medal from the 4x100m relay reams.
Wendy Mulenga, Buhle Geza, Rachael Majoni and Netsai Sabau formed the women’s 4x100m team that returned home yesterday with a bronze.
The National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe sent 17 athletes for the championships in Namibia with team manager Lisimati Pakamisa emphasising that their priority was on getting places for the World Junior Championships.
Online Reporter