Juwawo clocks Olympic time

With his star shining, the Zimbabwe 4x100m relay team’s chances are growing slimmer with more countries emerging as contenders for the final 16 national teams.

The Shabanie mine athlete, among a host of athletes doing well on the international scene, was home in 2 hours 14 minutes 38 seconds on Sunday. This was the best time run by a Zimbabwean athlete over the distance this year.

Brighton Chipere and Gilbert Mutandiro have ‘B’ standards.

The qualifying standard which guarantees an athlete an automatic berth is 2 hours 15 minutes. Chipere has covered the 42km in 2 hours 16 minutes while Mutandiro’s is 2 hours 15 minutes 44 seconds.

Three weeks ago Sharon Tavengwa ran a 2 hours 35 minutes marathon in Europe well inside the qualifying time of 2 hours 41 minutes.

Athletics and swimming have always been Zimbabwe’s biggest hopes for medals at the All-Africa and Olympic Games.

Abshero Ayele of Ethiopia has run the fastest marathon of the year with a time of 2 hours 4 minutes 23 seconds. This was at the Dubai Marathon on 27 January.

The good thing about the Olympics is that it is a different race altogether run under  similar conditions for all the athletes.

Long jumper Ngoni Makusha has already qualified for the event and is vying for a place in the 100m competition.

He has two months to qualify.

Brian Dzingai, Lewis Banda,  Marvin Bonde and Anthony Hobwana are some of the sprinters still entertaining hopes of qualifying for the Olympics.

The NCAA finals at the end of this month will probably be the best opportunity for the scores of Zimbabweans still fighting for recognition.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe relay team has slipped to 13th in rankings and are in danger of not qualifying for the Olympics.

Only the best 16 times clocked by countries are considered for the final line-up. Last month Zimbabwe seemed on the way to London after posting a 39.76 seconds time that left them fifth in the world behind the US, Canada, Jamaica and Australia.

Inactivity due to athletes’ demanding college fixtures have limited the team to just one trial event.
A Usain Bolt-led Jamaica leads the standings with a season’s best time of 37.82 seconds.

The US, Jamaica, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Canada, India, Nigeria and Bahamas, China, Japan and Bahamas lead the overall standings.