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Collin Matiza
Sports Editor
TINOTENDA MATIYENGA was a bundle of joy on Saturday after breaking his own Zimbabwe men’s 200m national indoor record.
He smashed the record during the first day of the two-day Texas Tech Invitational track and field meet at Lubbock in Texas, United States.
Matiyenga (21), who is now a Senior at the Texas Christian University where he is on a four-year athletics scholarship, set alight his own national indoor record of 20.80 seconds, recorded February 14, 2020.
He won the men’s 200m event in a new time of 20.75 seconds on Saturday.
The Zimbabwean’s winning time checked in at No. 6 in the United States entering the weekend.
Matiyenga, a former Prince Edward School pupil, was followed home by his highly touted TCU teammate and freshman Robert Gregory (Jnr), who settled for second place in 20.78 seconds.
Third place went to Lance Broome of Texas A & M University (20.95 seconds).
Another Zimbabwean sprinter, Kundai Maguranyanga (22), who is also on an athletics scholarship at Texas Christian University, ran a 20.95 for fourth place to complete TCU’s trio in the top five, all of which ran sub-21, according to reports from Texas.
The previous weekend, Maguranyanga had clocked 21.31 seconds when coming second behind Broome, who clocked 20.95 as he won the men’s 200m event in another indoor event — the Aggie Invitational meet — at College Station in Texas.
Five Frogs were placed in the top-10 of the men’s 200m event at the Texas Tech Invitational.
Matiyenga’s record-breaking time led the way with Gregory (Jnr) (20.78) closely behind in second place.
Freshman Dennis Phillips (21.43) and Zimbabwean sophomore Simba Maketa (21.46), both of Texas Christian University, finished in eighth and ninth, respectively.
Maketa was the only one who showed up for heat No. 3 and was moved to the next heat and forced to run in lane two.
He was originally slotted to run in lane four.
Maketa showed he was one for the future by finishing in the top 10 in the men’s 200m event on Saturday.
He is a former St George’s College pupil.
But the day belonged to Matiyenga.
During the 2020 indoor season in the United States, Matiyenga first ran a personal-best of 6.69 seconds in the 60m at the New Mexico Team Open on February 1, 2020.
He then went on to post a personal-best indoor time in the 200m (20.80) at the Texas Tech Shoot-out on February 14, 2020, which was a new Zimbabwean national indoor record. Matiyenga was also a member of TCU’s 4x400m relay team that won the Big 12 Championship and qualified for indoor nationals as the No. 8 seed en-route to earning All-America honours.
Meanwhile, another Zimbabwean athlete, who is on an athletics scholarship at Texas Christian University, triple jumper Chengetayi “Du” Mapaya made his 2021 debut at the same Texas Tech Invitational track and field meet on Saturday and didn’t disappoint.
The senior jumped 16.63m and now owns the top mark in the United States.
Mapaya returned for his senior indoor campaign to defend his national title in the outdoor triple jump from 2019.
He also garnered a bronze medal at the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships as well.
As a freshman in 2018, Mapaya reached the championship in the triple jump and finished third with a 16.38m jump.
Mapaya secured his national championship in the most dramatic fashion possible.
Going into his sixth and final jump of the night, Mapaya was in third place after a jump of 16.94m in his fifth attempt.
On the final jump of the competition, Mapaya jumped 17.13m passing up event leader Jordan Scott of Virginia (17.01m, 55-9.75) and winning the national championship. It was TCU’s first national title in track and field since Ronnie Baker won the 60m dash in 2016. Mapaya is a five-time All-American.
In the 2020 indoor season, Mapaya garnered a silver medal in the triple jump at the 2020 Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships (16.06m).
In just his second collegiate long jump appearance, Mapaya placed 5th at the conference meet with a jump of 7.43m. Mapaya qualified for indoor nationals as the No. 5 seed in the triple jump and was named a USTFCCCA All-American.
Prior to his move to Texas Christian University, Mapaya won the gold medal in the triple jump at the African Junior championships, recording an African junior record 16.30m jump. In order to qualify for the championships, Mapaya jumped 16.01m to win gold at the Southern Region championships.
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