Let’s not sublet the development of athletes, says top coach

Lovemore Dube
KENYA trained long and middle-distance coach Khumbulani Dube has urged Zimbabwe not to sublet its development of athletes to the US.
Most outstanding athletes for Zimbabwe especially sprinters and jumpers have been based in the US on scholarship.
“If we keep subletting development to the US we might get false positives. That thought aside, I feel we have been competitive in the 200m and marathon if we are to take the recent Olympics into consideration,” said Dube.
He believes the 400m is the country’s strongest with a big pool locally.
“But locally on the ground, our strongest competition and barring mishaps aside the 400m is the event we should be targeting. It’s got the largest field that can easily turn into world-class athletes in three or four years’ time if handled well. We just have to come up with a quantifiable if not qualifiable Zimbabwean model of training like everyone else, elsewhere,” said Dube.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe should be among the top sprinting athletics country in 2025, if performances this year are anything to go by. The biggest athletics event will be the World Championships in Tokyo where representation is expected from the country’s top runners.
Tapiwanashe Makarawu and Makanakaishe Charamba were among the top 200m athletes at this year’s Olympics, an enventuality that proves that Zimbabwe has talent.
Makarawu is the country’s fastest man over the 200m among Zimbabweans having run a blistering 19.93 seconds while Charamba is second best ever with a time of 19.95 seconds. Both were too good and qualified for the Paris Olympics in which Makarawu finished sixth in the final and Charamba eighth.
At the end of the season in which Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo ran the fastest time of 19.46 seconds, Makarawu’s time is the 12th best of the season while Charamba is 15th.
The Zimbabwean duo can take heart in that the Olympics got every top athlete to run there under the same conditions, unlike other rankings where some are at more favourable conditions climate-wise and quality of the track.
Another Zimbabwean Edwin Nyamutswa had a ranking of 189 under World Athletics with his 200m best of the season of 20.59 seconds.
Zimbabwe has the potential to do well in Africa and world in the 4x100m relay.
Makarawu had the third best time of 20.29 seconds in the indoor 200m. Zimbabwe athletes did not fare strongly in the 400m with Takudzwa Hove running 45.47 seconds for a 121st place in the World Athletics rankings. Leon Tafirenyika with his 46.05 seconds is 293rd while Simba Makede is 496th with his 46.50.
In the 10 000m Bradley Makuvire has a time of 28 minutes 29.91 seconds and is 284th in the world. According to World Athletics, Tendai Zimuto had the fastest marathon running the 42.2km in 2 hours 09 minutes 30 seconds.
Marathon record holder Isaac Mpofu who returned from the Olympics where he finished 19th, boasts of 2 hours 10 minutes 09 seconds as his best. However, some events run on “unofficial events” recorded better times and some Zimbabwean athletes were not considered by World Athletics for their rankings.