Chronicle Editor
Petros Kausiyo in Budapest, HUNGARY
HE might have failed at the first attempt but the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe (Naaz) have backed emerging runner Tapiwanashe Makarawu to be the country’s next sprint king.
Makarawu made his debut at the World Athletics Championships earlier in the week when competing in the men’s 200 metres event.
The United-States-based sprinter was the first of the small band of Zimbabwean athletes here, to plunge into competition and he came agonisingly short of qualifying for the semi-finals.
Running in Heat 2 that featured seasoned stars including United States sprinter Noah Lyles and Jamaica’s Andrew Hudson, Makarawu came a credible fourth in 20,64s.
Lyles won the race in 20,05s with Hudson coming second in 20,25s and Czech Republic’s Ondrej Macik (20,40) completing the qualifying trio from the heat.
Makarawu has won the backing of Naaz president Tendai Tagara and the association’s director of coaching, talent identification and development Lisimati Phakamile who are convinced that he will emerge as the next big-name sprinter from Zimbabwe.
Tagara and Phakamile were on hand at the magnificent National Athletics Centre in Budapest, built on the eastern bank of the famous Danube River, (the longest river in Europe), to witness Makarawu line up against the some of the world’s best sprinters.
And the duo was as impressed with what they saw as they were convinced that Zimbabwe is on track to produce top global sprinters.
They believe that in the 23-year-old New Mexico Junior College student, they may have unearthed one such gem, who will shine for Zimbabwe.
Tagara said Makarawu, who has just completed his first year on scholarship in the United States, had already surpassed expectations of a rookie athlete.
“If you look at Makarawu, he has the qualities of a modern sprinter, look at the Botswana guy (Letsile Tebogo), look at Bolt (Usain) and the American sprinters and you look at his shoulders and height, not bulky . . . it is all about the strength to run a good time,” he said.
Tagara has also backed the former Bindura University of Science Education academy student to make the cut for the 2024 Olympics, having already run the qualifying time of 20,10s for the Games, albeit outside of the qualifying window.
When Makarawu sprinted to his personal best time of 19,98s in May, it secured him a place at the Budapest championships but the qualification window for the Paris Olympics was still two months away from opening.
This means he would have to re-work his magic on the track when the American college season resumes.
Tagara reckons that Makawaru’s three-month lay-off during which he was also injured ahead of the World Championships, was the athlete’s biggest undoing.
“If you look at it, he was in America in September and in May he was already running an Olympic time.
“The reason why he did not do well here (in Budapest) is because he last ran on 10 July and only managed to find a race on 5 August . . . to me that was too much for a young athlete.
“When he finished running in May, everybody closed doors because the colleges went on holidays in America, the coach, the physiotherapist, everybody went on holidays, remember he is a young man with nowhere to go when the college closes and the coach tried to come in but he was more of a computer coach.
“It is normal for American colleges to go for long holidays so the boy was almost three months inactive and for him to come back and still run 20,64s I can tell you that come next season, the boy will run improved times.
“We have never had an athlete come to America and in less than a year he is qualifying for the World Championships, that shows the boy is a gem I tell you,” Tagara said.
Phakamile, who took charge of Makarawu once he touched down in Budapest agreed with Tagara’s evaluation of the 23-year-old and also urged Naaz to facilitate more races for the sprinter.
“I must congratulate Tapiwa for a competitive time, he showed character, good speed and potential.
“As an association, what we have noted and what we have picked up is that in Tapiwa we have great potential, a medal hopeful.
“He is less than one year in the United States and in less than a year, Tapiwa managed to compete with the defending world champion, Lyles, indicating that with more training and more races at such a level of the competition, he can do even better.
“Tapiwa has got the body, the mind, he has got the zeal and a very stable mind and my appeal to the association is to give him more platforms to compete at such levels. He showed great potential and if we had covered the gap between
May and now with some work and competitions, we would have been talking of something else.
“What we are expecting from him now is to re do his qualifying times, re-run the 20,1sec for the Olympics. He has about 11 months to try and run that time and qualify for the Olympics.”
The Naaz director of coaching wants the association to play an active role to ensure there is no lull in preparations for Makarawu and any of their athletes who would have qualified or seeking qualification for the Olympic Games.
“Even if it is from the United States, if we can fly him to competitions that will give a platform to familiarise with regular top level competition that is what we have to aim for,” Phakamile said.
“Other than the United States College games, it is up to us to pick up from May to August next year and offer him training programmes and competitions so that he does not lose form and fitness. As Naaz we have taken note of the fact that the moment that his college season ends, we take over and organise the training and competition for him.
“If he had maintained his form when he was running 20,14s, and 20,10s in the heats in colleges, I am sure he would have had even greater times here”.
Phakamile feels Makarawu will still punch his ticket to the Olympics as soon as the America College track and field season resumes adding that his performance also underscored the success of the development programmes in Zimbabwe.
“To have someone like Tapiwa achieve what he has done in less than a year in the United States shows that it is not all about what he learnt there but shows that back home we have great potential.
“We are very grateful that we have produced one from home and one from home has qualified for the World Championships.
“There is so much homegrown talent, look at the marathon runners they are homegrown, so our athletes have great potential and the message to other athletes at home is don’t give up, keep knocking on the doors because the potential is there.” Phakamile said.
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