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US-based Zimbabwean athlete Vimbayi Maisvorewa has been named the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Women’s Track Athlete of the Week for her outstanding performance at the Rock Chalk Classic at Lawrence in Kansas last Saturday.
Maisvorewa, who is on an athletic scholarship at Cloud County Community College in Kansas, won the women’s 400-metre dash at the Rock Chalk Classic with a school-record time of 53.66 seconds.
The 18-year-old rising star’s previous best in the 400m was 53.68 seconds which she set at the KT Woodman Classic at the beginning of April.
Her winning time at the weekend ensured she finished top in a 25-runner field that featured 16 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletes.
Maisvorewa’s time would win the race by six-tenths of a second over her next closest competitor and is currently the number-two ranked time in the National Junior Collegiate Athletic Association (NJCAA) this year behind only Ashantae Harvey of Barton County.
The Rusape-bred sprinter has been enjoying a memorable maiden season in the US. Barely two months ago she etched her name in the country’s athletics history books after breaking Zimbabwe’s women’s 400m indoor record at the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region VI Championships in Pittsburg, Kansas.
She crossed the finish line in 54.65s ahead of Kiara Brown of Butler Community College to beat the previous Zimbabwe women’s 400m indoor record of 54.91s set by Larissa Bakasa in 2004 during her time at Texas Christian University (TCU).
Meanwhile, highlighted by a school-record performance from freshman Maisvorewa in the 400-metre dash, the Cloud County Community College women’s and men’s track and field team would account for four event victories and 21 top-eight finishes competing at the 2022 University of Kansas Rock Chalk Classic at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kansas, on Saturday.
No team scores were kept for the meet, which featured primarily NCAA Division I and II schools. Also competing in the meet were a limited number of NAIA programmes from the state of Kansas as Cloud County would serve as the lone two-year school represented at the meet.
Maisvorewa’s 400-metre performance would come in a record time of 53.66 seconds to best her previous record of 53.68 seconds set earlier this year at the KT Woodman Classic at the beginning of April.
The time would win the event among a 25-runner field as Maisvorewa would also go on to run the third leg of the women’s 4x400m relay team of Leonie Beu, Passion Crews, Maisvorewa and Isila Apkup; and they posted a time of 3:45.54 to take third.
The CCCC women would go on to post three additional top-eight finishes with Miracle Thompson taking fourth in the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.20 seconds while Pamela Milano would take sixth in the 800m with a time of 2:18.96.
Adding an eighth-place finish in the field events would be sophomore Faithlyn Irving in the triple jump after recording a mark of 11.22 meters (36 ft. — 9.75 in.) — ZimSportLive/Salinapost.com
Online Reporter