adminPRE-EVENT favourite Brian Mada was the star of the Zimbabwean team at the African Junior Track and Field Championship when he won the country’s only medal from the event.
Team manager at the event, which ran from March 5 to 8 in Addis Ababa, Silas Muringani had tipped triple jumper Mada as one of the brightest medal prospects.
And Mada did just that when he leapt his way to a silver medal on Saturday after clearing 15,30m in the final.
“This was not his personal best as he did a 15,65 in Harare. Maybe the pressure of competing at this level for the first time was affecting him. The athlete who came first leaped 15,39m,” said Muringani.
Muringai was also full of praise for Shingirai Hlanguyo, who is based in South Africa.
“Shingirai Hlanguyo competing in his first 200m event after two years posted a personal best of 21,.94 seconds, booking himself a place in the last 16 where he bowed out in the semi-finals. “Shingirai is by far the second best sprinter among the juniors in Zimbabwe behind Michael Songore.
“At 17 years, he is destined for greater things. We hope he will earn a medal for the country when he competes in the African Youth Championships in Mauritius in a month’s time,” said Muringani. Tafadzwa Munyawara at 18 years did not disappoint either as he did well to progress to the semi-finals of the 100m event but failed to earn a place in the last eight.
“Tafadzwa was the only survivor from the African Youth Championships in Nigeria in 2013. Then 16-year- old Tinotenda Matiyenga, one of the youngest participants at this competition, acquitted himself well powering to a strong finish in 200m with a new personal best of 22,24 seconds.
“He was fourth in his heat, running with the 19 year old Divine Onduduru of Nigeria who was the 100m champion.
Lovejoy Mapfumo posted a personal best performance of 49,56 seconds. He was fourth in his heat in the 400m event, running alongside Karabo Sibanda of Botswana, the eventual 400m champion.
Panashe Majuru also set a new personal best of 51,25 seconds in 400m although it’s not his favourite event.
“Nyasha Mutsetse failed to rise to the occasion after some chest complications just before the race owing to some strong wind conditions that raised some dust at the warm up track. He was fourth in his heat failing to make it to the final.
Muringani said Maxen Ncube and Tinotenda Makawa failed to run their personal best times. Maybe they were overwhelmed by the occasion. The 4x100m team also failed to click, bowing out in the semi-finals.— Sportszone.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter