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Collin Matiza
Sports Editor
ONE of Zimbabwe’s top United States-based track and field athletes, Cloud Masibhera, scooped another gold medal in the men’s triple jump at the Blue Oval Invitational on Saturday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.
Masibhera, who is this year’s Missouri Valley Conference Champion in the men’s triple jump, made his outdoor debut by winning the same event, with a good jump of 14.22m.
The Zimbabwean athlete is on an athletics scholarship at Drake University.
At the beginning of this month, he buried himself in glory, after he claimed the first step on the podium, during the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championship.
Masibhera became this year’s MVC Champion after winning the men’s triple jump competition with a personal best of 15.16m.
His jump beat the field by nearly a foot, and was ranked the fifth-best indoor mark, in school history.
Masibhera’s indoor triple jump crown is just the third by a Bulldog and first since 1988. His gold medal-winning feat, in the men’s triple jump, saw the Drake University men’s, and women’s track and field teams, capping a successful three days in Missouri.
The men’s team recorded their best team finish, since 2000.
Drake’s men finished fourth, in the team standings, with 60 points, to record the team’s highest finish, since the 2000 team finished third.
It was also just the third time, since 1990, that the Bulldogs have finished fourth or better. And, at the weekend, the Bulldogs competed in their first outdoor track and field event of the season.
Masibhera was one of their leading lights, producing a fine performance in the men’s triple jump event.
The Drake University track and field team’s throwers also did well by recording a school record and six all-time top-10 performances, at the Blue Oval Invitational Saturday.
Adam Kessler made his Drake debut by shattering a 29-year-old school record in the shot put, with a throw of 18.80m).
Kessler, who transferred from SIU and is the reigning Missouri Valley Conference champion in the event, beat Joel Sward’s record of 61-7.75, set in 1992.
His performance on the men’s side highlighted two other men’s throwers that recorded all-time top-10 throws in the hammer throw. Joey Harkins won the event with a throw of 57.42m that ranks third all-time at Drake. Austin Jentz finished seventh with a toss of 41.17m that ranks sixth in the Drake record book.
The Bulldogs remain home, for their next outdoor competition — the Jim Duncan Invitational — on April 9.
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