Chronicle Editor
Lovemore Dube
ISAAC Mpofu, the only Zimbabwe athlete who has already qualified for this year’s Summer Olympics to be held in Paris, France is the odds-on favourite to win the Zimbabwe Athlete of the Year Award.
The winner will be announced at a banquet to be held in Harare on Friday and is being organized by the national athletics board.
Mpofu had a good 2023 in which he finished 15th at the World Athletics Championships held in Budapest, Hungary. Against a field of national champions of other top marathon countries Mpofu defied all odds to finish in a time of 2 hours 11 minutes 33 seconds.
He emphasized his standing as Zimbabwe’s top road runner with a time of 2 hours 07 minutes 39 seconds, the fastest time over the distance by any Zimbabwean in 2023 well inside the 2 hours 08 minutes qualifying mark for the Olympics.
Mpofu faces competition from Bradly Makuvire who has the fastest times in the 1 500, 5 000 and 10 000m in recent times. The US based athlete had a personal best of 3 minutes 51.63 seconds over the 1 500m, 8 minutes 14.2 seconds in the 3 000m, 13 minutes 57.67 seconds in the 5 000m and 28 minutes 50.61 seconds in the 25-lap event, the 10 000m.
Last November he ran the cross country 10km event in 30 minutes 24 seconds.
Rising sprinter Tapiwa Makarawu who set a national indoor record over the 60m dash with a time of 6.64 seconds and ran brilliant world class times of 10.05 and 20.10 in the 100 and 200m respectively has a deserving call to the award too.
In a good season for him he ran the first sub 20 seconds 200m but the time was adjudged to have been wind-assisted, a blistering 19.98 seconds.
In the junior men there is fierce competition too with Samuel Duati, Takunda Mhete and Shawn Katsidzira in the running.
Dauti hopped, skipped and jumped 14.78m in the triple jump and won silver in African Youth Championships.
Also a high jumper, Dauti had a decent junior high jump of 1.94m.
Mhete also scored 14.78m as his season’s best mark in the triple jump in the African championships before doing better in a local competition with a distance of 15.20m.
He did not disappoint in the long jump with a season’s best of 7.13m.
Katsidzira had the following personal best efforts of 22.75 seconds in the 200m and 14.47 seconds in the 110m hurdles.
In the senior women’s best athlete category it is going to be a toss up between Vimbai Maisvoreva, Ashley Miller and Faith Nyathi.
Nyathi ran a time of 4 minutes 31.39 seconds in the 1 500m in the US where she is based. She had a time of 10 minutes 06.12 seconds in the 3 000m.
Miller shone in the year 2023 clocking 57.07 seconds in the 400m and 3 minutes 31.49 seconds in the 4x400m relay with her American college mates.
Maisvoreva, another strong candidate for the senior women’s title, had a best of 53.95 seconds in the 400m and was part of a 4x400m relay team that clocked 3 minutes 40.20 seconds.
Kimberley Kachambwa laid a stake in the junior women awards with a 34.36m discus throw and 10.53 in the shot put last year to give Zimbabwe hope of a future star in field events.
Nontokozo Ncube ran a 55.34 seconds 400m and a 2 minutes 16 seconds 800m in Costa Takawira Series to lay a claim as one of the brightest prospects the country has in middle distances.
Gailey and Winnett Dube once dominated the sprints in the country and passed on the baton to the likes of Nobuhle Ncube, Tatenda Goronga and
Caroline Ncube, a star is in the making in Nontokozo Ndebele who has also been nominated for the junior women’s award.
She ran a personal best of 11.54 seconds in the 100m and 24.31 in the 200m albeit all hand timed, but appeared good times to place her among the top performers of the year.
Tendai Tagara, the president of the National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe said they had decided to revive the awards to motivate their athletes and honour top performers.
“The National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe will be hosting their first national Athletes of the Year Awards for the first time in more than 20 years.The event will take place at Holiday Inn, Harare on 26 January 2014.
“As an organisation we felt the obligation to honour our athletes who are both in Zimbabwe and abroad. The performance of our athletes based outside in 2023 was outstanding as reflected by the number of those nominated. The nominees performance was for 2023 season. As an association we are striving for excellence. In 2024 we will also honour excellence at the end of the year,” said Tagara.
They will also honour coaches and officials.
Junior Women
Nontokozo Ncube, Kimberly Chambwa, Samkeliso Ndebele
Junior Men
Shaun Katsidzira, Takunda Mhete, Samuel Dauti
Senior Women
Faith Nyathi, Ashley Miller, Vimbai Maisoreva
Senior Men
Isaac Mpofu, Bradley Makuwire, Tapiwa Makarawu
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