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Phineas Mukwazo, Sports Editor
THE Rio 2016 Summer Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 5 to 21 August while the 20th Africa senior championships will take place in Durban, South Africa from 22 to 26 June 2016.
These are important dates on the National Athletics of Zimbabwe calendar. With that in mind that Sunday News Sports Editor Phineas Mukwazo (PM) set out to engage the NAAZ director of coaching, talent identification and development Pakamile Lisimati (PL) on how preparations were progressing, and other related issues.
It should be noted that Zimbabwe has participated at every Olympics event since 1980, winning medals in 1980 (Women’s Hockey team — gold), 2004 (Kirsty Coventry — 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze) and 2008 (Kirsty Coventry — 1 gold, 3 silver).
However, no one from the athletics teams has achieved anything at the Olympics, although there were notable outings for Bulawayo-born Lewis Banda who reached the semi-finals at Athens 2004, and Brian Dzingai and Ngonidzashe Makusha stormed into the finals of the men’s 200m and long jump respectively in Beijing in 2008.
Before that, the last time a Zimbabwean athlete had got to the athletics finals was in Los Angeles way back in 1984, when Zephaniah Ncube crossed the line 11th in the 10 000m race.
Below are excerpts of the interview:
PM: How are preparations for the Snr African Champs and Rio 16 progressing?
PL: Preparations are so far going on very well with all athletes busy with their personal coaches training hard for the major events, our department is also responding well to training needs of some top athletes by assisting them with advice and training schedules, availing competitions of high standards and other necessary logistics.
PM: How many of our athletes have met the qualifying times for Rio 2016 then?
PL: Currently we are still on the four marathon runners (Wirimai Juwawo, Pardon Ndhlovu, Cuthbert Nyasango, Gilbert Mutandiro) as all other track and field athletes are yet to get into major events and peak season where we will be eagerly waiting for their performances, we want to take this opportunity to wish them luck and safety from all injuries throughout their campaign to qualify.
PM: For those who haven’t yet met the qualification standards, what is being done to enable them to qualify? Which qualification events are they either involved in or are they going to be involved in?
PL: We have already lined up a lot of high quality and competitive events locally and in neighbouring countries so as to provide a wide platform and increased opportunities to race and qualify, we have also organised a series of training camps that will be held in the two large cities (Bulawayo and Harare) over the April holidays. Currently the personal coaches and national coaches are on the ground working with all potential athletes.
PM: There is the issue we once touched on, reviving our once promising relay teams, in that regard what initiatives are we putting in place?
PL: Yes, we have already started assembling relay teams (4×100 and 4x400m) that will see the beginning of our revival and challenge for honours regionally and internationally. We will be sending teams to represent us in the relays at the Athletics South Africa Nites series that has just been organised by ASA in the coming month of March.
PM: What effort are you putting in order to harness the talents of athletes such as Tatenda Tsumba, Tinashe Mutanga, Elton Kativhu, Michael Songore, Ruvarashe Mzinde, Mufaro Hungwe, alongside the likes of Ngonidzashe Makusha, Gabriel Mvumvure, among others.
PL: All these athletes mentioned above have been getting lots of assistance from the Federation, in the form of advice, transportation, clearances, logistics and other assistance that will enable them to perform very well from their bases. Their personal coaches and colleges have also been doing a great job in liaison with NAAZ in the improvement and drive to produce quality performances.
PM: As for the facilities left behind by the hosting of the Region Five, is your association fully utilising these, are they being made available to you without an hindrance? Are they assisting in the improvement of our athletes? If not, what is your take on that?
PL: Our association has not of yet faced very big problems with accessing White City Stadium and its equipment, we have been able to organise and host successful events there although I know the Ministry of Sports is working all out to ensure that we actually get more of what we are getting now.
PM: Are you so far happy about the events that kick started your 2016 calendar, in terms of participation, officiating, competitiveness and so forth?
PL: So far the events organised by NAAZ have been very well attended, the organisation is showing great improvements and I can safely say that I am happy with what I have seen and hope this will keep going on throughout the season and also have a great impact on the performances of our athletes.
PM: And finally the harsh economic situation prevailing in the country, is it impacting negatively on your activities as an association?
PL: Definitely like any other association we are not being spared from any economic challenges. Actually we always feel like we are hard hit the most, and I would like to urge all my colleagues and fellow coaches in all sports to keep on and walk the extra mile to achieve our goals of development and produce that stars we are working on, one day we will be rewarded. I would also like to plead with parents, the corporate world, friends of our sport and all politicians to chip in with all the help so as to cushion us in these challenging times.
Bongani Ndlovu