Long distance runner Katakura dreams big

Godwin Katakura

AS he turns his attention to his first international race of the year, Godwin Katakura is targeting a new personal best with an eye firmly fixed on qualifying for next year’s World Athletics Championships.

The long-distance runner will line up at the Hannover Marathon in Germany on April 12 and is in the final stages of preparation for what he considers a key assignment in his 2026 campaign. Katakura has spent the early part of the season competing in local marathons as he built momentum ahead of his first major international outing of the year.

His steady rise has not gone unnoticed, with Katakura among the athletes drawing interest from the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe as preparations begin ahead of next year’s World Athletics Championships.

“My goal for 2026 is to run a personal best and fighting for qualification to the World Championships, and the Olympics in the near future.

“I am hoping for a PB at the Hannover Marathon. If I can run a new PB, I would have achieved my goal because that’s my focus at the moment.

“The World Championships, it’s part of the plan. But we will sit down with the coach when I am back from Germany, to work on the way forward,” said Katakura.

Katakura’s current personal best stands at 2 hours 11 minutes 2 seconds, which he recorded last year at the Durban International Marathon in South Africa.

It has been a busy opening quarter of the year for the Cadence Athletics Club athlete, who kicked off his season at the World Cross Country Championships in January, where he represented Zimbabwe in the senior men’s race.

The event marked his first appearance on the global stage.

He then returned home to compete in local road races, including the CBZ Marathon, where he finished top.

“In terms of preparations, I have done everything one needs to do when preparing for a marathon.
“I have worked on endurance, I have done all my long runs, and of late I have been working on speed but it’s just final touches.

“We have reduced the workload now, I am just doing light training, and I am ready for the race.

“I am confident of the groundwork we covered because 42km is more about endurance and I have done all trainings for endurance. I did all the sessions for speed.
“I have no doubts on my preparation,” said Katakura.

Katakura said his participation at last year’s Volksbank Münster Marathon proved to be a valuable learning experience, giving him insight into the demands of competing against elite runners from around the world.

“I think I now know what to expect. When I went to Germany I met athletes from Kenya, Ethiopia and they are the best, so it helped to identify areas that needed improvement.
“It changed a lot of things for me, like my training, when we talk of mileage per month, even per week, it changed, we increased the mileage, and even the speed sessions, we had to add more sessions and improving my times. Those are some of the things we changed,” Katakura said.

He has been training alongside his regular partners Blessing Waison, who is preparing for the Two Oceans Marathon, Arthur Chitara and Shelton Ncube.

For Waison, the upcoming Two Oceans Marathon will mark his debut in ultra-marathon competition.