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Collin Matiza
Sports Editor
ZIMBABWE’S star triple jumper, Chengetayi “Du” Mapaya, produced one of his best performances this season at the weekend.
He finished second at the 2021 National Collegiate Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships at Fayetteville in Arkansas, United States.
Mapaya, who is on an athletics scholarship at Texas Christian University, earned the national runner-up spot in the triple jump, after settling for second place behind Emmanuel Ihemeje of Oregon, who won the event with a good jump of 17.26 metres on Saturday afternoon.
The event saw Mapaya setting a personal best jump of 16.95m while Tennessee’s Carey McLeod finished third at 16.93m, according to reports from Arkansas.
Mapaya’s mark (16.95m) broke Ndabezinhle Mdhlongwa’s Zimbabwe indoor triple jump record from 1998 (16.89m), as well as TCU’s school record.
His jump was a new indoor personal best for the Zimbabwean.
The senior’s previous best indoor jump was 16.85m at the Texas Tech Shoot-out that set a TCU record earlier this year.
The 2019 NCAA outdoor triple jump champion becomes a six-time All-American. He also garnered a bronze medal at the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships.
As a freshman in 2018, Mapaya reached the championship in the triple jump and finished third with a 16.38m jump.
Mapaya’s teammates at TCU Tinotenda Matiyenga of Zimbabwe and Robert Gregory (Jnr) both collected second-team All-America honours after placing ninth and 12th overall in the 200m respectively during the weekend’s 2021 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Matiyenga became a five-time All-American while Gregory (Jnr), a freshman, notched his first career honour.
This denotes the first time Matiyenga received an All-America selection in an individual event.
All four of his previous entries were as a member of 4x400m and 4x100m relay teams.
Mapaya, Matiyenga and Gregory were the only three athletes who qualified to represent Texas Christian University at this year’s NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Mapaya, the 2021 Big 12 indoor triple jump champion, entered the weekend’s meet as the No. 2 seed and he didn’t disappoint as he settled for second place in the men’s triple jump event.
His jump of 16.95m bettered his previous performance at the Big 12 Indoor Championships at Texas Tech’s Sports Performance Center where he won a gold medal towards the end of last month.
One jump was all Mapaya needed to take the Big 12 triple jump crown. The TCU senior leaped 16.55m on his first attempt and passed on his final four.
TCU have won three of the past four Big 12 indoor triple jumps between Mapaya (2019, 2021) and Scotty Newton (2018).
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